Kirby Smart gives curious answer when asked if Georgia could make an addition to its roster

“I’m excited about this team, got a lot of growth needed,” Smart said. “We have to test toughness, and a word we talk about a lot around here is grit. We’ve got to find out what kind of grit we got during this camp, so when we get in these fourth-quarter battles, we can win them.”

Smart spoke to reporters Wednesday, covering a number of topics about his team over the span of 20 minutes.

Below is the full transcript of Smart’s remarks.

Opening statement….

“I think, No. 1, it’s awesome to be here. It’s great to get started. I’m excited for our guys to be back in a real camp setting. So, a couple things I want to hit on from athletic department standpoint. Probably the most important thing and exciting thing to me is we, the first game of the year will not be Tennessee State in Sanford Stadium. There’s going to actually be a soccer match held in Sanford Stadium, which I think most of you know about, but I’m excited. August 20th, between the hedges at 7 p.m., our women’s soccer program will play James Madison. I think Keidane (McAlpine)’s done an incredible job. I’ve been on several donor events with Keidane, and he does an incredible job recruiting, but also trying to make Georgia’s soccer program the best in the country. It’ll be the first time, there’s been a history of Georgia soccer, the first Georgia soccer match held in Sanford Stadium. A lot of you remember the Olympic gold medal match. I was actually in school here, was here in Athens, I remember that, 1996. So 30th anniversary of that, they’re going to have a soccer match in Sanford Stadium. So it’ll be really cool. The goal is to break the attendance record, which I fully expect Dawg Nation to get that done and turn out more than 22,000 people for a soccer match in Sanford Stadium. So, I am excited about that, and hope to be in attendance myself, along with a lot of our players, to be there for that. So we’re excited about that.

With it, we’re moving on to a different phase. We talk about the phases of our football program. We have an offseason phase, we have a summer phase, we have a minicamp phase. The minicamp phase was probably more productive this year than it’s ever been in terms of onboarding new players, trying to get guys understanding how we practice. Then we kick off what we call training camp. What is the purpose of training camp? To subtract some things from your life, so that you can add some things. Everybody’s heard of addition by subtraction. I’m asking each player to have some addition by subtraction. What are you going to do for the next 12 to 14 days that you’re technically in camp? Camp’s really longer than that for us. But those are the number of days that you’re not in your normal bed. You’re away, you’re locked in, you’re focused. Then school starts, we’re still in camp mode, but you get ready for what you do. We’ve shown a lot of examples of pro players, what they do for camp. Pro teams, what they do for camp. Our history of camp here, and how you can improve your team and gain depth on your roster, is what we want to do.

“We’re pretty healthy, we’re in a really healthy state. I think I talked to you guys at media days about that. I feel like we’ve got a lot of guys that can practice. We’re fortunate to have really good numbers still. I think we’re at 125, 127 guys practicing, which we’re very fortunate to have those numbers. We can get a lot of guys reps that way. But I’m excited about this team, got a lot of growth needed. We have to test toughness, and a word we talk about a lot around here is grit. We’ve got to find out what kind of grit we got during this camp, so when we get in these fourth-quarter battles, we can win them. With that, I’ll open it up.”

On his thoughts on out-of-conference scheduling...

“Yeah, it’s kind of to each his own. Everybody has their philosophy with what they go with. Historically, I’ve been a part of some really good SEC championship, national championship. I’m not just talking about Georgia, I’m talking about everywhere I’ve coached. I’ve been really fortunate to coach at really good programs: LSU, Florida State, Alabama, Georgia. The common denominator of those programs is you play really good teams year in and year out, whether it’s in conference or out of conference. Are you trying to appease the fans? Because you want to have a really exciting schedule. They enjoy the excitement of playing those schedules, versus the balance of risk of injury and wear and tear. The line probably lies somewhere in the middle. I do think the consumer matters. The consumer is the people that are coming to the games. They want to see exciting, competitive games. The sooner we get to a format where either more teams are in the playoff or more teams are rewarded for a challenging schedule, I think that’ll take care of itself. I think you’ll get people playing more competitive schedules and more competitive environments.”

On the run the ball/stop the run emphasis last year and what the points of emphasis are this year...

“Yeah, you can’t get away from that point of emphasis. That’s not going to change ever in our program. I would say we were coming off a year that we were subpar at that, when we really tried to drive that home. We’re not going to ever get away from that. I mean, we have to be able to run the football. Show me a good team that wins championships that can’t run the football. Just doesn’t happen. I mean, it just doesn’t happen. You look at the national champions the last five, six years. They’re effective running the football, and they’re effective stopping the run. It’s one of the leading statistics over the last 10, 15 years in national championship teams. They’ve had really good run defenses. So you better be able to run the ball, stop the run. But there’s not one particular thing we’re harping on. We’ve got to generate more turnovers. We’ve got to generate more havoc. We’ve got to be more explosive on offense. I could sit here till we’re blue in the face, but it’s not one thing that we can say.”

On KJ Bolden, how he handled high expectations, and what he can bring to the team…

“Yeah, my question to you would be, who comes into this program that doesn’t have hype and expectations? Are you saying he had more than everybody else? I don’t necessarily think so. I think that every player that comes to Georgia, thanks to you guys, you do an incredible job of your job, you hype them up really good. So they have huge expectations on them, including KJ. And KJ has probably managed those better than many players, because he grew up and played in competitive environments in youth football, extremely competitive environments in middle school, all the way up to Buford. He’s played some of the highest-level football he’s been around, so it was never too much for him. How has he handled those expectations? Well, he started and played and was very effective as a freshman. So, I think he’s handled that well. I think the greater side that he’s grown in is the maturity to understand what leadership looks like. He had the blessing of playing with Malaki (Starks) and Dan (Jackson). So, he learned what it was to be a good teammate. He has been an extraordinary teammate since being here. He helps so many guys in the secondary. I always hear him coaching back behind me, being positive with guys and being a leader. Those are the expectations I have for him, to be the best version of himself, not live up to everybody else’s expectations.”

On Dante Dowdell update...

“Yeah, Dante’s doing better. He is not with us and don’t have a timeline for him to be with us. Don’t know when that’s gonna happen. The most important thing for Dante right now is that he gets healthy himself and that he can do functions and do daily in-and-out things. Not really worried about football right now. It’s not a high priority for him or us.”

On Dwight Phillips Jr...

“Dwight has worked his tail off. Like, how can he help us? He’s one of the most explosive players we have on our offense. If we’re gonna be more explosive, than we’ve got to get guys that when they touch the ball, big plays happen. And whether that’s — the form of touches may change, but he’s gotta touch the ball because he’s been one of our most explosive guys, probably even more so in practice than what you’ve seen in games.

“He’s had a great offseason. He works really hard. That room has a lot of mudita in it. They really care about each other. The success of each other is more important than the success of one person, and I appreciate the mentality in that room.”

On Kyron Jones update...

“Yeah, he’s been kind of on a pitch count, and we’re starting him in the fall camp in the same mode. He’s been ramping up after kind of a resting period, and he’s been increasing, increasing as the summer goes. But he’s still not at a — it’s not that he’s not 100% healthy. He’s not taking 100% of a normal practice day’s reps. So, we’re trying to build him up, number one, conditioning-wise and see how he feels.

“It’s a very sensitive injury. It’s tough to monitor. It’s a feel-base for him. He’s doing a lot of rehab. It’s frustrating for him because maybe when the team does a lot of conditioning, he can’t do it. But he is a very conditioned player. He has to do non-impact cardio when they’re doing impact cardio, and I think that frustrates him.

“But his role has been, he’s been a really good special teams player, and he became and started some games last year. And we want to give him a chance to compete for those spots at safety, STAR, money, all the different positions our safeties play.”

On if Jones is dealing with an ankle injury...

“Well, it’s not so much an ankle; it’s a foot. It’s a lower-extremity injury.”

On what he wants to see from the safeties during fall camp...

“Yeah, the three critical factors: Can they play man-to-man? Can they tackle? Can they play the ball in the deep part of the field? I mean, it doesn’t change. Year to year, y’all can write as many stories as you want. Can he play man-to-man? Can’t be on the field if he can’t. Can he tackle? Can’t be on the field if he can’t. And does he play the ball well in the deep part of the field, which can be a fatal flaw if you can’t because if you misjudge it, they score touchdowns. If you can do those three things, we can teach you what to do.”

On a message to Jalon Walker...

“Yeah, I talked to Jalon yesterday and just my heart felt for him and his family. Such a great leader, great person. I think Jalon, better than anybody in this room or probably anybody on our team, understands what football is. He’s seen it. He is an ultimate optimist. I’ll guarantee you he’s got the best attitude and a smile on his face today because he’s got a mom and dad that are just tremendous.

“Jalon Walker’s not defined by football. He’s defined by a lot greater things than that. And he’ll probably be a great asset for the community while he’s out, and he’ll come back twice as good as he was because that’s the outlook he has on it.”

On the younger running backs like Bo Walker and Jae Lamar...

“I kind of hit on it. Those other guys have gotta step up, gotta be ready to play. Feel good about the guys we’ve got in that room. I don’t know that we’ve had a body of work enough to say where Jae and Bo and the other guys are — Nick (Peal) — I mean, we’ve got other guys in that room that can step up and play. But time will tell.”

On a moment where KJ Bolden helped coach up the other guys...

“Well, we’re having walkthroughs, and you’ve got some young safeties out there with Blake (Stewart) and Todd Robinson and all the young guys out there — even the guys that transfer in. He knows it, he understands it. He can help them with the finer points. He’s not afraid to confront and demand excellence from them. He’s not afraid to say, ‘Hey, man, jog all the way off the field.’ ‘Hey, run to the ball.’ Hold them accountable because when he’s doing it himself, it’s a lot easier for him to hold them accountable. But there’s not one instance. He does it every day.”

On the versatility in the tight end room...

“It’s awesome. I mean, they’ve got a tremendous, talented room. But if you chart explosive plays, those aren’t always the tight end room. Tight ends are not — and I love our tight ends. We’ve got great tight ends. But they’re not guys that are hitting 22 and 23 miles an hour. They’re guys that they can do all kinds of grunt work, they can catch balls in the flats, they can block people, they can play on special teams.

“They can be explosive if we can run the ball, and explosive passes for tight ends usually come off of play-actions. Play-actions only work if you have the ability to run the ball. So our ability to run the ball allows us to utilize what may be one of our stronger rooms. But at the end of the day, there has to be buy-in from those rooms, and there has to be a culture and belief that I’m 230 pounds, my advantage is I can bully people on the perimeter. And if they use that wisely, it makes our skill players, receivers and running backs even better. But it is a talented room and it’s an extremely competitive room.”

On Jaden Reddell and his work this summer...

“Yeah, I talked about him after spring, so I thought he had an incredible spring, and he’s had a great workout. We had strength coaches get up yesterday in front of the team. They’ve spent more time with our team than anyone on our staff has over the last, let’s call it four months, I don’t know, end of April, May, June, July, they spent more time with our team than anyone. He was one of four players singled out by them for work ethic, intensity, PFE, buying in, but it’s not really in words with him. He’s not a man of a lot of words, and that’s not what PFE is. People think passion, fire, energy is words. It’s really holding yourself accountable to work at the standard or above the standard of what the team is. And they acknowledged him as one of the guys who’s done that.”

On if players still make the biggest jump from year one to year two...

“No, I think it’s more of an opportunity based. Because Jaden Reddell was not year one to year two. He made a tremendous jump two to three. But a lot of that’s opportunity, confidence, size, speed, lifting, two years in a weight program. A kid that comes from Buford might not take him two years. Or a kid that comes from one of these elite programs that has food, and nutrition, and weights, and they’re like a college program, Zykie (Helton). It’s like, you don’t look at guys like that that need that long, whereas other guys do, and to each their own. So, I can’t define for you year one to year two is the greatest jump, year two to year three. The opportunity is the greatest jump.”

On the five-for-five rule change and players coming back...

“I look at it as a huge advantage, cuz I don’t have to worry about redshirting players anymore. Because in the past, you got to game three or four. Do I play him, do I not play him? He says he’s not gonna play, he may be leaving. You got all these issues. That’s why the rule was put in place. It was put in place to make it where the pressure’s not on the coach to decide if he plays or not, because you have five years to play five. So, you can play every game your freshman year, you still got four more. You can play no game your freshman year, you got four more. You follow me? So that’s why the rule was there.

“If you’re talking backwards of, well, what if this guy doesn’t make it in the NFL, or what if this guy comes to come back? The way I understand that rule and the interpretations that have come out most recently indicate that you’ve gotta have room on your roster. So, if somebody knew what was coming, kind of like a crystal ball, and they said, we’re gonna sit at 100, so we can bring five guys in, they were a lot smarter than me, because I was trying to operate at the fact that we had 105, we wanted to have the best team we could, and nobody knew this was coming. So, it’s gonna be hard unless somebody, some teams operate under that 105, and they may have room. But as I understand it, they gotta return to the school that they were at, unless they were in the portal, which is gonna limit that rule a little bit.”

On what Georgia is majoring in this offseason...

“Yeah, when I say major, that’s like 20, 20, 20, 20, 20%. You can’t put 70% in this, and 30% in this, and think you’re gonna be effective in all five of those buckets. So, it’s definitely a balancing act of what you put your time and energy into. I think you can base that on the strength of your staff. So, if you have a really strong defense or a really strong defense coordinator or staff that’s been there, you might spend more time with your offense. For us, we’ve had staff retention across the board, including special teams. So, it allows a person like me to be a little more over the top and say, okay, where do I get the best bang for my buck? Is that investment in relationships? Is that motivation? Is that, what are the areas you can do that in? And I’m evolving every year in that. It’s not like I can say, well, this summer, this is what we focused on. I mean, we focused on developing players here, and that doesn’t change. It doesn’t, we teach football here at a high level, and we want our football players to have incredible football intelligence. And that’s not ability, that’s in between your ears, and that’s what we major in.”

On if Georgia is at the 105 limit ...

“Yeah, we’re always at or around the 105 limit. That technically could be changing all the time. It’s not like a defined target in time that we’re at this or this. We’re always open to bringing on a new player if we have room. And if we don’t have room, then we can’t do that, and we’re stuck at it.”

On Chris Cole...

“In terms of Chris Cole, I’m excited about what Chris Cole can do. Look, Chris Cole, there’s not a higher character player on our team than Chris Cole. This guy is the hardest worker, he hits the highest speeds, he plays with the most energy and enthusiasm. There’s not a day that we don’t show a clip in the team meeting of a guy that’s chasing down a ball and running down a ball. He never saves up. He’s the consummate, I’m gonna lay it all on the line the first 10 plays. And if I fade out during practice and cramp up and have to get an IV, I do it. He doesn’t save up anything. So, he embodies what we want in terms of effort, toughness, comes from a great family. And just, I think he’s had one of the best offseasons, so I’m excited to see him go out and compete and play for our team.”