The Georgia Bulldogs have their opening College Football Playoff game coming up against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day. Head coach Kirby Smart has coached many big games before this.
Here’s what he said to the press about preparing for this game.
Comparing and contrasting Notre Dame from the other teams he’s faced in the postseason in the past:
“Yeah, that’s a tough one because I don’t really remember the other ones. You know, I don’t remember them as a team. The games obviously stand out, one score, fourth quarter, really physical games. The physicality I see when I watch Notre Dame play is pretty incredible on both lines of scrimmage. The way they play, the style of play they have. So I mean comparing those teams is hard for me because there’s so many years in between, but this is a really good, solid, fundamentally sound, don’t beat themselves, play good defense, great defense, and really physical on the lines of scrimmage and they’ve got a really athletic quarterback. So there’s a reason why that they’re at the point the season they’re at.”
On the challenges of navigating the portal schedule with preparing for the playoffs:
“Yeah, it’s becoming the new norm. You know, December is absolutely just tough. I don’t know a good way of saying it. I wouldn’t say it’s unbearable. I wouldn’t say that it’s unfair. There’s a lot of words you can use for it. It’s just not probably the best thing for the college football game.
Individually, you can make a case, you know, it’s good for some players, it’s good for some teams, it’s good for some coaches. But the calendar’s really challenging. And if we had the solutions, I think somebody wise, somebody smart would fix it. But when you intertwine all the working parts of academics and being a student athlete and the timing of the Playoff, timing of the portal, timing of signing day, it’s incredibly challenging. And it’s been that way this month.”
On what’s happening with Carson Beck:
“The only thing I can update is that they’re still going through those deliberations in terms of decision-making, process time, all the kind of decisions they have to make as a family.”*
*Beck would later get season-ending surgery on his elbow.
On Notre Dame’s running game:
“Well, they have unbelievable backs first off. Who you hand it to does matter. Those guys are tremendously talented and do a great job. I mean, (they) use all of them, too. And then when you throw the skill set of Riley (Leonard) in there, the quarterback, it just makes it that much tougher to defend because they have multiple weapons, multiple options, and they’re really physical. I mean, they’re committed to it. They’re very committed to the run.”
On the Fighting Irish’s pass defense:
“Well, they play great defense. They have a great pass rush. They’re physical up front. They affect the pass rush with how hard they play, and they got really good defensive backs. I mean, they play man-to-man. You know, they get up on you, put their hands on you. You can tell it’s a great brand of football between Coach (Al) Golden and Coach (Marcus) Freeman have done a great job. So, they play really good football.”
