Kirby Smart learned Georgia is deep with young players who make plays

0:00I'm holding a response and people are fired up. No, the things, look, football's an amazing thing. It brings us together. It tears us apart. And that's what's happening right now when it comes to the decision that the Falcons are made. Now, again, this is my opinion. I don't think that this is the decision cameras to fans you wanted to make. I think Mike, he was forced to make this because your quarterback comes to you and says, I'm not ready. I can't run you out there. Yeah, I mean, I'm having a dialogue with a lady and I'm like, are you listening to yourself? You're rationalizing the only guy for the job has had three ACL surgeries. Anywhere else in football, any other guy, you'd be saying, this is not the guy for the job. You'd be moving on. You know, I went back, I looked it up, we're just talking to our boss, my contender in the commercial break, just real quick. In 2003, when Mike Fick got hurt, coming back from the injury in the preseason game against the Ravens, he came back guys, had a schedule. He was back, it was an injury in September of 2003 and he was supposed to basically miss at first things that was going to be probably the whole season. And then it was, well, maybe he can come back.

1:01Came back in week 12 against Carolina. You know, I mean, that was the game where he levitates. Remember like the last five yards and gets in the end zone. Remember, Mike Fick with his helmet off. I still get goose bumps talking about it. It was one of those great nights at the Georgia Dome. It was an unbelievable atmosphere that day to be in that building. So I'm just saying, it's like, we've been taught, again, maybe you weren't, maybe you just have a different mindset, but football, you're never 100%. You know, and this guy's fighting for a starting job and just we hear a guy say, he's cleared by the medical and he's not fighting. You're not fighting to start week one in Pittsburgh with your team. It's just strange. Okay, I'm not calling him a coward. I'm not saying he's soft. Just saying I've never seen anything like this before from a quarterback. Yeah. And how far does that go with your teammates? I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Mike Fick rushed back for a team that was eliminated by the playoffs like four weeks prior. I mean, I'm just giving you an example. You're saying it mattered. It mattered. It mattered. That's what you're saying. This has nothing to do with comparing the two of them. We're talking about the circumstances. That's the matter.

2:01That's the standard that as a Falcon fan, I'm putting him up against. Yeah. Okay. That's it. They were three and 10 when you came back. You know what most guys would have done? Taped out. See an expression. I'm not doing that. Three and 10 and he comes back. That's what we're talking about when we say this competitive thing about, man, either you want to be out there, you don't. All right. 404-4-7-2-6-09-29. More of your phone calls, but right now we got to talk some about the game. That was easy. What do you believe, Kirby Smart felt he learned most about his team Saturday. There are deep football team. They have a lot of guys that can make plays where, you know, Jane Radell, who had the high level play that we all saw score to touch down early in the game. Like, he's probably in terms of snap plays this year. He's not going to play more than lost and lucky or Elias Williams until like their deep team. You know, in talking with people in terms of opponents that have come into San

3:02Fritz Stadium, I don't know that there's been one worse than the Tennessee State game. So it's hard to make like sweeping generalizations, but you saw a lot of the young talent on this team. Well, yes, they have a way to go and I have to go out there and prove it in SEC play. I think you can see whether there's a lot to like about this team and if this team can hit it ceiling. It has the makings of a team that can win a national championship. It just has to get there and go out and prove it against obviously better competition. Yeah, I mean, no disrespect to the Tigers of Tennessee State. They're just, it's just, it is what it is. It's a classic week one and they're out manned. So knowing that the talent level is not what you're going to see next week, you know, what Western Kentucky that eventually get an SEC play. But did you like what you saw from some of the offensive rotation? Yeah, you know, I was, I was interested to see, okay, like which receivers are you going to try and feature and get involved early where like if you can get them the ball, they're going to go out there and do things. So that talent, Taylor guy, we've talked at Nazi move about this off season, got an offensive touch on each of the first four positions. But that was very intentional by Georgia and you see that rewarded with the touchdown.

4:03He had an explosive run on a play that we've seen Georgia run time and time again. I think the other guy where there was a lot of preseason buzz about Jane Redell and while the level to which he dominated may have surprised some people. I don't think anyone that really followed this program was shocked. The guy that really impressed me on Saturday was Elias Williams. Now, maybe a six foot seven to 160 pound tight end is supposed to look like that against an FCS team, but he had the touchdown where he goes over the top. And then you also caught a play action pass later in the game where you know that's something that's what was wanted to focus on and really improve over the course of the season. So gunner hitting a tight end over the middle on a play action pass. Even though it's obviously gets overmatched opponents, that's a nice thing to check off on the box. And then the other thing with Elias that is so impressive for me and I think he's going to open up so much down the field. As the ability is a perimeter blocker, I don't feel bad saying this because Kirby has already said it. As great as the Donald Washington was as much as Georgia liked using him, Elias Williams is a better player than I think Donald Washington plus the time of the University of Georgia.

5:04And if he can hit his ceiling, that's going to be really, really I think important for what this team could be. And especially as it wants to be more explosive because so many of the things that turn, maybe a 15 year play into a 50 year play comes with down field blocking and there's not someone on this Georgia team that does a better job of that than tight end Elias Williams. Connor follow me on this because I think Gunner sees obviously better players daily in practice. But to go out and complete 15 to 16 for 202 three touchdowns to three different receivers. I mean, did he show us something and did we learn something about Gunner? Yeah, I came away really liking the way that Gunner played and specifically it's the little things. You know, I mentioned the play action pass over the middle of the field. There was another play later on in the game where in the past, you know, no one was immediately open. Gunner would have probably taken off and run. He fits in the pocket and delivers a ball to Craig Gandridge over the middle of the field that results in an explosive play. For the first time in his Georgia career, Gunner Stockton started a game and finished with

6:08zero rushing attempts. And that's so important for a longer college football season where you're going to want to limit heads and limit the wear and tear that comes in your body. You know, Alabama quarterback Keele on Russell and a blowout win over ECU. He let Alabama in rushing 13 carries for 186 yards and one of that looks nice on the statute. As we saw a season ago with Ty Simpson, if your quarterback is taking repeat hits over and over the course of the season, it's just not a great recipe to have. So that Gunner stayed in the pocket, worked in the pocket. Did a good job of distributing the football and getting rid of it quickly. And I think all by against a very overmatched opponent, distributed the ball to the tight ends and over the middle of the field. Those are some of the biggest off season question marks we had with Gunner. The fact that he went out and answered them as cleanly as he did, I think is encouraging to where, yes, he's got to do that against SEC play obviously, but he at least showed the ability to go out there and do that. Is there anything you'd want to see against Western Kentucky because you kind of laid out Conor Riley from dog nation with us. You're not going to be doing this stuff. You're going to be doing against Oklahoma with your game plan.

7:09It's going to be really white bread. So you just basically big box curve, a little box car and run your offense. You want to see Nate Frazier continue to run the ball. You know, coming into the season, I thought that this was game of your game where it actually might be a little bit trickier on paper than the way that it looked like. This is a Western Kentucky team that consistently gone to bowl games. They've been able to punch you up against their weight. You know, last year, like I know that LSU team has sort of thrown in the towel of the season. They played LSU to a 13 10 game in bat and ruse. So they're not going to be intimidated by what you see, but I actually think in all of college, one of the more surprising week one results. Western Kentucky without Nevada, a team that is in exactly great. It is not what it was when it had Concaper and I could quarterback and they lost 49 to 14 and really got blown out. And so now they're having to fly back cross country, play George at this week and then next week they got to go play at Indiana as well. It is just a tough spot for Western Kentucky. So I think for Georgia, whereas like this may have been a game where they were going to have to strain a lot more. And once you saw against Tennessee State, I just wonder with how much maybe Western Kentucky is lost to the transfer portal and the turnover that really impacts group of six programs

8:12on a yearly basis. Now, where their players just get called up to the big leagues and the power for again, I think it's going to be more the same. Where you want to see Georgia start fast. You want to see a crispness with the way they play when the starters are in there and you saw that again, Tennessee State five straight touchdowns to start the game five start three and outs. You see Georgia force a turnover this week. Something that didn't do a week ago, but again, a fast start where you're able to get your starters. The guy you know, you're going to be asking to make big plays later on in the season. You can get them out of the game early. I think that's the thing that you're really most looking forward to this week. Connor, let's take a look because we got a bunch of these teams obviously on the schedule. Mike mentions OU. They play Michigan watching this last weekend want to get a feel for them Alabama, right? Auburn with an incredible, you know, game right here in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Florida with their new coach. Miss finds a way to win. My point is who was the most impressive team in your opinion as you watch this first weekend? And is LSU hype or is that real? Like are they that good? I was someone who was probably higher on LSU coming into the season than maybe perhaps

9:15the consensus I had them playing Georgia in the SEC championship game. And the way that they beat Clemson where they were just so much better along the line of the screenage and it looked like varsity versus junior varsity, no matter who Clemson had out there at quarterback. And I thought they were really motivated by some of the things that have happened of late and I've given him credit for getting that team ready to play, going out and dominating away in which they were. It admittedly was not a great week one in terms of games that were available in terms of big name matchups. But I certainly think the way that LSU played Sam Leather first came off a foot injury for him. He gets more and more confident. I think that team can become even more dangerous. So a lot of that, yeah, is probably Clemson not being very good and it just so clearly seems like the game has passed out of Sweden by. But I certainly take LSU. I did much more serious team and potentially move them sort of into that title contending tier where you see a Georgia Ohio State a Texas in that manner. Talk with our man, Conor Riley guys about the dogs, obviously the big story.

10:18And I said it Carl earlier in the show, didn't really think I'd see the SEC voting to maybe kick LSU out of the conference. Seems like a big bluff. Is this just another misfire from Sanky and Company? I get it. It was like the villagers were out with pitchforks and torches and batten rouges. But they really even consider this because I think if you're not going to do it and you wouldn't do it, then don't bluff it. I think what the SEC wants here is the ability to get in writing from a court that we can actually enforce our rules and enforce punishment and make things difficult. I don't believe they're actually going to kick LSU out. But I do think that they want the ability to do so in case there is something this agree just again moving forward. And I do believe that the SEC in some way wants to punish LSU for taking things to the extent that they have already gotten to because they don't think the Greg Sanky likes being embarrassed the way that he was last Thursday when he was called to testify in this case. So again, I agree with you Mike. I don't think that the SEC wants to kick LSU out. I don't think they're going to go to that nuclear option.

11:19What I do think they want to do at this point in time is leverage the current LSU situation into having the ability to play by their own rules to where they can set their own rules and have self-government ship because that's something to talk about Jerry Morehead. We've known that they there are people and pockets within the SEC that have been in favor of that for a long time. I think now the SEC is trying to leverage this LSU situation into making that a reality because then that really allows them, I think, to move forward in a way that they would like and not just in retaliation to the way that LSU has behaved of late. tougher. Is it going to be tougher to win at Alabama or tougher to win at Ole Miss for Georgia this year? I'm going to say Alabama because again, just the history that they have there is not great regardless of who has been the coach there for the Crimson Tide. Although, you know, Kirby Spawn has never won in Oxford. He lost there his first year and then two years ago when they went to go visit, they lost there once again. But that LSU defense has a lot of issues, the Ole Miss defense has a lot of issues

12:19that I saw against Louisville and that whole team and I know they were without Kalon Lacey in the second half which impacted their ability to go out and try and ice away that game. But so much of their ability comes down to Trinidad, Chamblis, just being able to create magic. And I'm sure there were Georgia fans who were getting PTSD, you know, every time Trinidad dropped back and Louisville had him sort of dead to rights. And he just sort of wiggles out of it and then goes and makes a play down field. So, you know, that, the Ole Miss Louisville game in a way felt like a carbon copy of that Georgia game where Ole Miss had a double digit lead in the fourth quarter. They looked like they were cruising. Louisville gets two scores there at the end to actually tie the game and then Ole Miss gets in in line for a long-ish field goal to have I think 47-48 yards. Almost to a T the way the Georgia game played out, all right, Georgia was only down 10 and then couldn't get the touchdown on their penultimate possession and they had to settle for a field goal there. So, I just have a lot of questions about Ole Miss and the fact that Kalamacy's already hurt the wear and tear of the burden that I think this year is on Trinidad, Chamblis,

13:20that maybe in a way wasn't a season ago because of the defense that Ole Miss had. That makes the Alabama game a bit more worrying to me, even though I think that that is again the Tordor should still win. But obviously, that's not the first time we see that about a Georgia Alabama game. Right, no doubt. We'll see how things go this weekend. Conor O'Rally, tell the people where they can find your stuff. Yep, you guys can follow me on Twitter at K Conor, Riley. Mike, I'm glad you have the ability to get to Twitter again after what happened in Florida. You're back from the Stone Age. The struggle was real. Actually, why if I did? Ironically, why if I worked the whole game during the stadium? In the stadium. And I said, Conor, I said on Twitter, go, why can't we just watch the game the way I Oliver Stone filmed any given Sunday? And everything would be very dark and moody. Let's do it. Crazy stuff. Conor, thanks so much, man. We will talk to you next week, buddy. Yep, thanks, guys. Yeah, man. And he's right. I mean, like, you take little things from these games, less reponent. I hear you. But there are things that you go, hey, there's some growth there. He's right about Gunner, guys.

14:22And for Gunner not to run. Right. Like, that's interesting. Good pocket discipline. So we'll see how's they continue to grow. I think again, first, real challenge. If you want to say that, it's Arkansas, Mike, that third game right on the road. Right. We'll see how it goes to me. It's venibles when Oklahoma comes in. That's going to be the big one because I think their defense is legit. I think Oklahoma, go ahead, put me down. Did it wins this weekend? Oklahoma over Michigan. Yeah. And by the way, it should make me tear a peanut cup. See what happens. Me melt. All right, man, we're coming back. We got a lot more to dive into. Mike mentioned it. Not one, not two, not three. We've had six starters. Come on.