00:00Now Kirby Smart had his time in the spotlight at SEC Media Days yesterday.
00:05We didn't get to play this before, so we got to get to something that's potentially heated or potentially not
00:11heated.
00:11A comment that Kirby made yesterday, because there are differing opinions within the room right now.
00:17And it was about his comments on wide receivers yesterday.
00:20Dylan, can you play that for us?
00:22I wanted to ask about the wide receiver room in particular.
00:25One of the bigger question marks, at least that I have.
00:27How would you assess the wide receiver room heading into fall camp?
00:31I'm just very thankful for people like you, Steve, that keep questioning them.
00:34Because the more you question them, the more it helps me motivate them.
00:37So everybody says that we don't listen to you guys.
00:39Well, the wide receivers are listening, so they'll have a new challenge issued based on your question.
00:45He used the word irritated.
00:47He sounded irritated to have heard that question the way he did.
00:50And maybe it's because he used Steve's name, and I don't know who Steve is, but it's like, well, thanks
00:54to you, Steve.
00:55You know?
00:56Yeah.
00:56Like, you get that kickback, and I'm like, he's a little bit irritated with that question.
01:00Well, and Kirby's, I'm going to defend Kirby here.
01:03I don't think he's irritated at all.
01:04And we obviously want to get your take, because you're like the, you're the tiebreaker here, Allie.
01:10This is the referee.
01:10But, like, the reality is, is he used multiple people's, every time these guys ask a question, they announce who
01:16they are and where they're from.
01:18And the very first question he asked was a guy from a guy named TJ in Athens.
01:22And he said TJ's name.
01:24He goes, well, TJ, I thought that that was as Kirby of an answer as there is.
01:30He didn't seem irritated.
01:31He, that's the old seven and five.
01:34Hey, I think we're going to go seven and five.
01:36Yeah, I, to me, that was just Kirby answering the question without really having to say anything about the team
01:44or the room.
01:45He just said, well, we believe in them, and they're going to believe in themselves, and now they got another.
01:49That's typical.
01:50To me, that is like, that is typical Kirby.
01:53I'm just very thankful for people like you, Steve, that keep questioning them.
01:56Yeah, here's the thing, though.
01:58You said you're going to defend Kirby.
02:00I don't think there needs any defense.
02:01I don't blame him at all.
02:02I would have answered it the same freaking way.
02:05But I don't think he was angry.
02:06I think saying he's angry is, is, is, is.
02:08Angry.
02:09I didn't say angry.
02:09Irritated.
02:10Irritated.
02:11I don't believe he was irritated.
02:12He was irritated.
02:12I don't believe, I don't, knowing what I know about how he works, which you know more,
02:18because you, you were a player on a team that he was a coach on.
02:23But, to me, I think he was like, he might have went and paid Steve.
02:28He might have, Steve might have slipped a $100 bill in Steve's pocket.
02:32Because that just plays right into the Kirby, the Saban, you know, some of the best of
02:37the best play, but we're like, hey, yeah, I think you're crap.
02:39You're going to prove him wrong?
02:41Seven and five.
02:42Like, I thought that he was just like, probably, like, his mouth was watering because of that
02:46question.
02:47He's like, hell yeah.
02:48Now I got something to use.
02:49I can play this on loop in the weight room for when the receivers work out.
02:53I heard a stern point being made, is what I heard from that.
02:57Well, what does that mean?
02:58That sounds like a middle lane.
02:59Does that mean he's irritated?
03:00I mean, I don't, I don't think he was 100% not irritated.
03:06Like, I think there was a little bit like, okay, we'll handle this.
03:10And I think he wanted to get his point across sternly so that it's not addressed again.
03:16I think it just goes along with a lot of the offseason talking points for Kirby, because
03:20I think this is one of the biggest questions for George, and it's not so much like, it's
03:25just when you look at Bobo's offense and you look at Gunnar Stockton, questions are always
03:28asked about Bobo and questions like Gunnar Stockton's not going to be preseason, all SEC
03:32or anything along those lines.
03:34So you're going to ask questions about what those guys can be.
03:36And when you look at what, how the offense was constructed, struggled around the ball at
03:39times last year, struggled up front a couple of times last year.
03:42A lot of that offense comes from Zachariah branch on screen passes and outlet passes.
03:47Like who is that guy this year?
03:48And I think that the reconstructed wide receiver room, there are questions about it.
03:53I think, I think Georgia fans, I think I could bring Brandon Adams on here and he would tell
03:56you that it just, they have to prove it on the big stage because they're missing some
04:01of the things that made them go last year.
04:02I bet you Mike Griffith wouldn't agree with that.
04:04But anyways, no doubt.
04:06I, I, I, I wonder why the question wasn't asked by Gunnar Stockton and not about his leadership.
04:13I know I heard Kirby talking about, they took, they took them whitewater rafting and they were
04:18like, Hey, who wants to be up front?
04:19That's the most dangerous place.
04:20And Gunnar's like, I'll do it.
04:21And I think he's a heck of a leader, a heck of a player, a light every, you can't, there's
04:26nothing you can't like about Gunnar Stockton, but can he do it in the pocket downfield?
04:32Can he, can he be that guy in the pocket that can sit there and just pick you apart and,
04:39and stretch the field and do it because it felt like they were to, to exactly what you
04:45just said.
04:45They were overly reliant on the short passing game, the screen game, that type of stuff.
04:52And you can blame Mike Bobo all you want, but all he did was do what his quarterback would
04:57excel at and what would help them win games.
04:59I would like to see that them start pushing the ball downfield a little bit more with some
05:05of those receivers and, and that's, and yeah, and, and look, some of that's on the quarterback
05:10too.
05:10He can't be a one read, you know, he can't be what my tear is talking about.
05:15Well, I just, I mean, I just try to find the, I try to throw it to the first open
05:18guy.
05:19I see Kirby also got into talking about recruiting today.
05:23Let's hear what he had to say on that.
05:25The best part is the continuity we were able to keep through our retention and people say,
05:30well, are you just a retention team and you don't believe in the portal?
05:32Well, absolutely our most explosive offensive player last year was out of the portal.
05:36Our second most explosive player on offense was out of the portal.
05:39So we still have guys that we need.
05:43We still believe in the high school philosophy.
05:45I think when you look across the state of Georgia and you look across the NFL per capita,
05:51you know, the state of Georgia is by far and away the greatest producer of NFL talent,
05:55in my opinion, and really a five hour radius of our university, which includes some other
05:59states.
06:00It's so I don't think we have to go outside that all the time to get it until we need
06:04a special player or we have a special player who has interest.
06:08Yeah.
06:08He's kind of, he's kind of, um, it's kind of the best of both worlds, right?
06:13He's not, he's in, he even talked about how some coaches and I don't, he wasn't naming
06:18names, but I mean, some coaches, Lane Kiffin who basically will push kids out to bring in
06:25someone to replace them instead of keep that kid develop and then sprinkle in a little,
06:30you know, a player here, a player there that just absolutely makes your team that much
06:35better.
06:35I, I, I, I love the, the, the way he talked about that in the philosophy, because I don't
06:40think it's something you hear about.
06:41I mean, look, we can talk about Kirk Signetti all we want, Mike, and how, how great he did
06:45last year.
06:46How many guys, how many guys have been along the, that national title team last year were
06:52mainstays in Indiana football?
06:54Uh, not a ton.
06:56Yeah.
06:57Not a ton.
06:57Including their quarterback.
06:59Yeah.
06:59And, and I think the, the biggest takeaway of anything that's a talking point when I
07:02listen to him is the, the, the, I think it's 19.8, 19, 19.8 or 19.9.
07:10That is the average age of the Georgia football player right now.
07:13That is, that's insane.
07:15That, I mean, that is genuinely insane.
07:18When you think about a national contider, uh, uh, national title contender in college
07:23football to have a 19.8, uh, average age on the roster, it just doesn't, I think that's
07:27the youngest in college football.
07:28If I heard correctly yesterday, that is, that is the, for Georgia and everything they have
07:33to say they have the youngest roster in college football is mind numbing.
07:36But would you believe me if I told you they have 30, 30 players from their 20, 24 recruiting
07:44class out of high school, 30, I guarantee you that's pro that's gotta be double any other
07:51team in the country.
07:52And I don't know that I'm just, but, but I mean, there's a mass exodus of, of recruiting
07:58classes look like that.
08:00Uh, some bad draft classes that the Falcons have had in the past.
08:03What draft class was it?
08:04The 21 draft class where it's like, it's like Kyle Pitts is the only one that's still on
08:09the Falcons from that 21 draft class or something like that.
08:11Uh, it's, there's a more recent one.
08:13The one that, uh, JD Bertrand and Zion Logan just a couple of years ago.
08:18That's 23.
08:19Three, I think.
08:19Yeah.
08:20That was, that one's been, yeah.
08:22Yeah.
08:22Okay.
08:23That one's been brutal.
08:24But that's what recruiting classes are like now.
08:26You're like, man, we, we got all these guys in and yeah, we got like four of them left
08:30and it, but does that, they have 30.
08:32I mean, that's, that's wild.
08:34And that 19.8 number is, is also hard to fathom, um, in a world of college football where
08:42it feels like everyone is a seventh year senior right now.
08:45That's exactly my point and, and there's so much more to get into with this conversation
08:49later because the roster construction, a lot's being made about how much money is spent in
08:54certain pieces.
08:55And when you look at wide receiver and probably edge for Georgia, those are the priciest out
09:02on the transfer market.
09:04And those are the guys you're probably looking at needing younger guys to step up in terms
09:08of the way this, this, you know, this team's constructed, which is something we'll probably
09:11talk to a rusty about a little bit later.
09:13Yes, 740 is when we're going to have Rusty Mansell on today.
09:16Get all the behind the scenes of SEC media days.
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