“Alright guys, got back last night and getting ready to fire back up after a couple days off for this big Georgia-Florida game. Excited again to go to Jacksonville and play in an awesome venue. It’s very unique to have the neutral site and have split crowd and every year we go and play in it. It’s very different than the SEC home-away atmosphere. It’s kinda weird because it sits right there in the middle. It can be loud both ways. It’s kinda a momentum game. Whoever’s crowd is into it at that time or who has the momentum. But our guys are back and ready to get to work.”

On DJ Lagway’s performances…

“He’s a really bright player, got a bright future, great arm talent, got an ability to process information quickly, get ball out on RPOs. Really hard to tackle when it comes to, if you do get through on the rush, if you ever get through, now I gotta finish. Finishing on a guy that size is harder than you think, in terms of his escapability and ability to lengthen plays and do things. He’s done a good job. He’s improved. We watched him grow before our eyes last year and this year, and he’s surrounded by a really talented group of wideouts and a really talented offensive line. They’re physical on the offensive line. It seems like they’ve got guys that’ve been playing there for a while, and that complements his style very well.”

On new Florida offensive play-callers’ backgrounds…

“I don’t know that we have time to dig deep enough into the weeds that you’d have to dig all the way into. I mean, obviously Billy Gonzales will have an impact on that, as well. He’s been around some really good offensive staffs and has some things he believes in. They have, you don’t change or overhaul your entire offense in that short of time. There’s definitely ways to change it up, in terms of going faster, tempoing, allowing guys to make plays and go with tempo. They’ve used tempo quite a bit this year, and I’d expect them to continue to do that, to be in attack mode and try to take advantage of some of the things they’ve seen on tape versus us.”

On challenges of playing a team with an interim coach…

“Don’t know that I know that. I mean, you’re just asking what challenges. There’s probably challenges. There’s probably advantages. There’s a new voice. Sometimes new energy, sometimes change brings about a spark. I’m sure they’ll change some things up and, not in any disrespect in any way to what Billy did, sometimes when you bring somebody in there’s new juice there. I don’t know the challenges it would present. I haven’t been part of that.”

On Chris Cole’s development…

“Yeah, Chris is growing as a rusher and an inside backer. That’s been a big emphasis for us is for him to be able to play on the edge, but also still play at inside backer. He even played early in the season, and we still use him in some things, against 12 personnel where he walks out and plays more of a Star, outside backer type position, so he’s had three roles and he’s developed in those while maintaining his special teams status of a really good player on special teams.”

On Jadan Baugh during his recruitment…

“He’s a tremendous talent. Met him in ninth grade. He worked, doubled as a safety and played a lot of DB early in his career and just kept getting better and better and better. Played some linebacker and then kept playing safety. His senior year, he had a great year at running back, and really played well, carried their team and some really electric runs. He’s carried that over in his time at Florida. Really good back.”

On defensive improvements he’d like to see…

“I think I’d start with tackling. I think, at the end of the day, that’s what defense is about. Good defenses have few missed tackles. When you look at the two of our lesser performances, there were a lot of missed tackles. The first thing you start with is that. You’ve got to tackle well. That starts with being in position to make the tackle, not being out of position. But tackling well is key. Third-down defense, I’d like to see us get guys in third-and-long because we’re pretty successful when we get guys in third-and-long. But that starts with first- and second-down. So it all carries over, and it all kinda bleeds into each other.”

On Nate Bartgaze’s Jared Curtis plea (who Smart can’t mention by name)…

“No, I mean, I don’t get caught up in it much. You know, Marc, I don’t look at the stuff like that. We recruit the best job we can and sell what we have and talk to the kids and communicate with the kids that we talk to, and trust them for what they tell us and not get into gimmicks and propaganda stuff.”

On state of the game after Brian Kelly firing…

“I don’t know. It’s the world we live in. Everybody’s got a voice. Everybody listens to somebody. I don’t know enough about that situation, to be honest with you, that specific situation. I think you’re asking a general view, but I don’t know enough about what’s going on over there. We’ve got enough things to worry about in our own house, and that’s what I focus on. It’s obviously a tough situation on everybody. Let’s be honest. Players dealing with it, fans dealing with it, coaches dealing with it, at this time, in the middle of a season, I think there’s so much built around the playoff, and it’s like everything’s boom-or-bust, and you can’t have a normal season. People have got to make decisions earlier based on how somebody does. I don’t know enough about it. I know it’s high expectations. I coached at LSU. A guy once told me, that office you’re in, that’s not your office. You’re borrowing it. I knew then if you didn’t win, you wouldn’t be there long.”

On Florida’s wide receivers…

“Size, speed, they’ve got great size, speed, twitch. Movement at the line of scrimmage, ability to make plays down the field, break tackles, block, crack, in the run game, involvement in the run game. They do a really good job of getting their wideouts involved in that. Shift motion to get them open, but they’re talented. They’ve got young and old, and they’ve got good players.”

On strength of coaching at your alma mater…

“I don’t know. There are advantages in terms of the people you know, the people you’re connected to, the infrastructure that you know about, whether it’s institutional infrastructure or whether it’s fan base infrastructure. I think there’s an attachment, and you understand it well. There’s also a burden that comes with that, in terms of, I’ve been other places, and you never have to worry about keeping people happy that played there before, or the people that were involved there before, or feeling like your time is their time. I’m not just talking about former players and lettermen. I’m talking about alumni and everybody else. So there’s advantages and disadvantages to it. I don’t know if that’s correlated to anything or not, in terms of it. I would’ve thought during the NIL fundraising days, it probably would’ve helped. But that’s not as prevalent right now. It’s a little more rev-share, and you get your piece of the pie, and you spend it how you see fit. Whereas before, it was how much can you go out and raise. That might’ve helped some in the last couple years.”

On Kyron Jones and health update and what more he wants to see from secondary…

“I want to keep seeing growth. I want to keep seeing guys getting better. Again, the No. 1 thing you can do in the secondary is tackle. So when you get an opportunity to tackle somebody, you gotta get them on the ground. When you get opportunities to make a play on the ball, you’ve gotta make plays on the ball. Then you’ve gotta make some players where you punish people, and they make mistakes and you catch the ball. Those are things we’re looking for each-and-every week out of every group, but specifically the secondary.

Kyron, we’re trying to get him back as soon as we can. We’re hopeful he’s able to make it back.”

On Jacksonville memories for Georgia-Florida…

“A lot of memories because it seems like I’ve coached every Georgia-Florida game that I’ve been involved in has been there. It’s been some really good battles, some great games. Then played there three or four times, not sure how many times because we had one here. But I don’t think there’s anything that really sticks out. Some great wins and some tough losses.”

On Florida’s defense…

“They’re really talented, and they’re really talented, and they’ve had some injuries. They’ve had some guys out. I can only imagine what this unit would look like if it had stayed healthy the entire year. But they’re really good. They’re big. They’re physical. They’ve got a defensive coordinator who knows what he’s doing. He understands where weaknesses are. He understands what you’re trying to do. He has complements for that. He’s been really successful as a defensive coordinator everywhere he’s been, and they do a great job of stopping the run, affecting the passer. They’re a very dominant defensive team, in terms of physicality and skill level.”

On Gunner Stockton’s improvements…

“I want to see him continue to grow, take what the defense gives him, understand what we’re trying to do. We give Gunner a lot of latitude and options, in terms of the play-call. It’s more about putting us in the right play to be successful based on what they’re in defensively. I don’t think he gets enough credit for that decision-making process. Every play might have 2-3 decisions he has to make and those 2-3 decisions sometimes determine the outcome of that play. Really proud of his growth. He’s gotta keep doing it and keep taking care of the ball, and when he does that, we’re a good football team.”

On in-game knowledge of analytics and evolution of analytics…

“Well, when it started, I wasn’t really involved in analytics. I don’t know that it was prevalent 10 years ago. Maybe it was, and I wasn’t. But it didn’t really play a part. Somewhere around year 3 or 4, it began increasing. I’ve probably increased the use of it every year. But the use of it doesn’t mean being chained to it. It’s one of those things you’ve gotta use your gut, your intuition, but at the end of the day, I do believe in statistics and analytics, and I think it’s going to be right more times than it’s not. We know every situation what it says. I don’t want to be sometimes I know what the book says and sometimes I don’t. I want to know what it says all the time, and make the best decision in that situation.”

On legacy players on the roster…

“I think it’s a lot of pride. It says a lot about the coaching staff and the community and the people that were here when their fathers played for their fathers to be willing to support their sons coming here. You don’t necessarily have to have had a perfect experience to send your son here, but it certainly helps that you have a positive experience because you wouldn’t be sending your son there. You find a lot of people across the country that are disenchanted with where they went to school. Maybe something didn’t go like they wanted to, and it’s harder to get the son than if they hadn’t went to school there. A lot of legacies come through, and we have not gotten them all, but we have gotten some of them. I wish nothing but the best on the ones that don’t come. I wish nothing but the best on the ones that we get. I think it’s important that, if your father or whatever guardian played here, that you have a positive experience if you come too.”

On educating players on the rivalry…

“Not a lot. We talk about the things that are facts about the history of the game, which are like, the team rushes, the team that does this, things that are obvious. Explosive plays. You have more explosive plays than them, you’re probably going to win. You have less turnovers than them, you’re probably going to win. You rush the ball better, you’ve got a good chance of winning. There’s things that are facts about that, and there are things that are just part of history. To be honest with you, I’m focused on what we gotta do to play well and be at our best, and I think we control that.”

On anything different about Florida environment…

“No, other than explain it. There’s not a big rah-rah hoopla. You’re responsible for your own ability to get up. If you can’t get up for a game like this, you don’t need to be playing.”

On Lawson Luckie and Oscar Delp…

“I’ve seen the same thing I saw all year. I think you guys highlight when they get used and when they don’t, but they practice the same way regardless. They don’t just turn it on in practice. They do a good job. Some teams play us differently than others. Some teams provide us the opportunity. Sometimes Gunner’s on the same page in terms of what we’re looking for and what they’re doing, and it opens itself up. They’ve been huge assets for us, and they’ve practiced consistently throughout the season.”

On trying to replace Colbie Young…

“Well those other guys are physical too. We’ve got a physical group. There’s nobody in our secondary group that’s going to run away from contact or fear contact. Those guys are aggressive. Now Colbie has a physical presence to him that he’s even more valuable with the ball in his hands because he’s hard to tackle. That’s his physicality is tackling him. He’s physical blocking, but so are the other guys. We’ve got other guys. We’ve got tight ends we can use, 14 personnel, 13 personnel, 12, use of wideouts, a lot of good wideouts that can play for us. That’s been one of our deeper groups, so we’ll continue to do what we do in that regard.”

On Ryan O’Hara’s background as a play-caller…

“Yeah, he’s been multiple places. He’s had success where he’s been. Billy wouldn’t have brought him onto the staff if he didn’t have those successes. He’s got a great relationship with the quarterback. I think the person that meets with the quarterback during the day and during the week and during the offseason and during all of the game-planning, that’s who the quarterback is comfortable with. So his history has been with those quarterbacks, and he’s had success doing it, so it makes perfect sense in terms of the feel they have and wanting the quarterback to feel comfortable.