No. 2 Georgia defeated Tennessee 38-12 on Saturday and will now turn its attention to Vanderbilt.
It’s the perfect opportunity for the Bulldogs to really focus in on some of their miscues before they head on the road to take on No. 5 LSU next week.
On Wednesday, coach Kirby Smart joined the SEC Coaches Teleconference to preview the Commodores.
Here’s what he said:
How does Saban have so much success after changing coordinators so often?
- He wins because he’s a great coach and he has great players. He goes after the best and anyone that has great players make you a great coach… on his hiring, he hires good people and good coaches.
On Saban’s place in history:
- That’s a good question, I don’t know… the winning percentage and the era, I think he’s up there with the best obviously.
On Hot Rod’s kickoffs, does that hurt return coverage?
- Well we practice it whether he kicks it out of the end zone or not. We have a really good kickoff coverage unit.
On extra points and Hot Rod’s ability to make the XP vs. Tennessee standing still:
- Pretty special to do it in front of so many people and making it… the good thing is he practices it, hopefully he doesn’t have to do it again.
On the key matchups against Vandy and Kyle Shurmur:
- Being able to control the run game, they have good balance, play action… they set up the passing game through the running back… we cannot give up explosive plays and we have to make them drive the length of the field.
On Shurmur’s experience:
- You go to gameplan for him and you realize you aren’t going to confuse him, he’s seen it all… so it’s about executing when you face him, not tricking him because he’s not a guy that he can do that to.
Jordan Dajani covers SEC football for Saturday Down South and is a University of Tennessee graduate. He also has experience working in the NBA and with ESPN.
