Ad Disclosure
Kirby Smart remembers Bulldogs loss to Vandy as team prepares for trip to Nashville
By Paul Harvey
Published:
The Georgia Bulldogs are off to a roaring start in their second season under head coach Kirby Smart.
Smart has led the Bulldogs to a 5-0 record and a No. 5 ranking in the AP Poll. Georgia has aced a number of early tests that include beating Notre Dame on the road and winning its first two SEC games by a combined score of 72-3.
The Bulldogs look sharp, but they must remain locked in to keep this hot start rolling. Georgia will travel to Nashville and take on Vanderbilt this week.
The Commodores are a team that went into Athens and took down the Bulldogs last season, and Smart admits that the errors of last year’s game have stuck with him.
“Yeah. There were a lot of errors in that game,” said Smart. “Give them credit. They caused them by what they did on their kickoff return. They kicked the ball in the corner and Reggie stepped out. We had two returners backs and tried to field some rugby punts, which are really tough the way the kid was kicking the ball. There were 200 yards of field position that were give or take lost, and we have to do a better job in regards to that.”
Smart also highlighted Commodore QB Kyle Shurmur as a player the Bulldogs defense will have to limit in order to put up a solid performance.
“First of all, he is very intelligent and does a great job with their offense,” Smart explained. “He will be the best pure passing quarterback that we have played against. He does a really good job of putting them in the right play…He reads the coverages. He puts the ball where it is supposed to be thrown and does a really good job of doing that. So, it will be our biggest test from a quarterback standpoint defensing the quarterback as far as a thrower…I thought from our game last year — he was still kind of growing up in our game — and then from our game on he played lights out, really good, and has only improved.”
Vanderbilt RB Ralph Webb has had an admittedly slow star to the season, but Smart believes he is still a dangerous back that Georgia will have to account for.
“No. There’s nothing that I can say as far as seeing him struggling,” said Smart. “I know this, he runs with a lot of power for a smaller back. I saw him run over a safety from Florida and he did with Ronnie Harrison from Alabama. He plays with more power than you give him credit for. He is extremely elusive. He is dangerous out of the backfield and they do a good job of getting the ball in the passing game. He’s one of the most electric players in our conference and that’s evidenced by his statistics. He’s the leading rusher of their history.”
The Bulldogs will look to keep their hot start rolling on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 12 pm EST on ESPN.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
