Kirby Smart blatantly avoids question about James Coley, offensive play calling
By Keith Farner
Published:
With fans and media still dissecting the loss to South Carolina, Georgia coach Kirby Smart is facing questions about offensive play calling and game management. But Smart wanted no part of explaining offensive coordinator James Coley’s role in the loss, and whether changes need to be made.
Smart has maintained multiple times that the 4 turnovers Saturday were the main reason for the loss.
Here is one question at Smart’s Monday press conference and how Smart responded:
“Kirby, big picture, your assessment of James Coley to this point as an offensive coordinator. And also, in general, how much do you sort of immerse yourself in offense, and how much of his play calling is influenced by basically what you want or something maybe you say to him in headphones?”
Smart replied, “Yeah, we’re definitely looking forward to Kentucky right now. That’s the biggest concern we’ve got, and we’re going to focus on that. I think the most important part of an offense is scoring points, and that’s the most important thing. Now, how do I get to those points? Do I get to them through explosive plays? Do I get them through long, methodical drives, which has so far been our MO. That’s been the identity we have, of long, methodical drives, and we’ve had some really good long, methodical drives.
At the end of the day we’re all judged by, number one, how do I score points, how do I protect the ball and how explosive can I be, and that’s what we’re focused on.”
Smart also didn’t want to focus too much on the mistakes in the South Carolina, outside of turnovers, such as an illegal formation penalty against Georgia.
“But, again, guys, we’re going to Kentucky,” he said. “We’re focused on Kentucky. Out of respect for our team, understand we’re focused on Kentucky for our players. And we’ll grow and develop from the loss. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to bury that hatchet. We got things we gotta do better. We gotta protect the ball. But we’re focused on Kentucky.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
