Georgia head coach Kirby Smart heaped praise on Clemson, its defense and quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei ahead of Saturday’s primetime showdown between the Tigers and Bulldogs which kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte and will be televised on ABC.
“Obviously excited about this game,” Smart said to the media during his press conference Monday. “Seems like it’s been a long time coming. We’ve had a good camp in terms of working it ourselves. We’ve moved on to Clemson since I guess about Wednesday last week. Wednesday or Thursday, we started working on these guys. We got a chance to watch them all summer and we watched them in the spring. They’re really talented.”
Smart, whose coaching career dates back to 1999 when he was an administrative assistant at Georgia, says Clemson’s defense – which returns nine of 11 starters from a season ago – is one of the best defenses he’s ever seen returning in terms of the number of starts and number of games played.
“The volume of experience, it’s unmatched, anywhere, anytime — and I’ve been in college football a long time — in terms of just how much football those guys have played,” he said.
Smart also had high praise for Uiagalelei, who completed 78-of-117 passes for 914 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions over 10 games (two starts) as a true freshman in 2020.
“Obviously, their quarterback got some experience last year when Trevor (Lawrence) was down,” Smart said. “He’s got one of the biggest arms I’ve ever seen. Very talented, very hard to defend. It’s like every play is really tough to defend when you play these guys. There’s no time to rest when you’re playing them.”
Smart added that he believes special teams play will be a pivotal factor in Saturday’s game.
“They’ve always had good specialists, they continue to,” he said. “That’s a rich history in this game tradition – both teams have always had great specialists, and I think special teams will play a big part of this outcome of this game.”
You can watch Smart’s full presser below:
Clemson Variety & Frame is doing their part to help bring you some classic new barware and help one of the local businesses that helps make Clemson special.
Order your Nick’s barware and do your part to help. #SaveNicks
