Latest / Dawgs Down South / Episode 109: SEC Media Day, Kirby Smart Press Conference Takeaways.

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Episode 109: SEC Media Day, Kirby Smart Press Conference Takeaways. · Dawgs Down South

• Ted Turner: Greetings and welcome everyone to Dogs Down South. I'm your host, Ted Turner, and it is officially Georgia's Day for SEC Media Day, and I'm super excited to bring you every, I'm not every single word Kirby said, but every single thing that went on around Georgia's Media Day today. We're gonna cover basically what Kirby said, and we're gonna keep Rayland Wilson and Gunner Stockton, as well as Drew Bobo, for a day later on this week or possibly next week for some added content. But there was so much to go over for Kirby Smart today. man, SEC Media Days just kind of hits different, right? It kind of gives you the feeling that the season is right around the corner. If I looked at it last, I think actually we podcasted last night. and it was weird we started before midnight and ended up after midnight. So I think we're around forty-six days till Georgia opens the season. But SEC Media Days gets it really started. I was listening to Kirby this morning and I can't lie, I was getting a little bit excited. I was, you know, hearing Kirby hear him answer questions and we're gonna listen to excerpts from Kirby's part of his press conference today and go over and break some of them down. But it it it just got the it it it got the Got the wheels turning, man. I I I can't tell you how how excited I am about once we get through media days, then we get a little bit of break. And you know, when you look at how fall kind of works, you know, for high school, high school starts back for high school kids, and then very shortly after that, you start having high school football games, you start having obviously fall camp, and then fall camp leads us right into opening week zero of college football and and then there we are and we're off to the races. I hope for myself and my friends and everybody listening from the Tampa area that we get some fall weather sooner rather than later. It has been a muggy, very hot Florida summer and I'm not rushing by any means, but I always like looking forward to and Greatly anticipating the fall, as well as pumpkin spice latte and cool weather. But let's hop right in. So, obviously, big thing to talk about today. Kirby Smart took the poke the podium, day two of SEC Media Days. If you don't already know, we finished up episode 108 hit last night. We finished up our SEC summer preview. and we finished up with Vanderbilt, Texas AM, and then Ole Miss. I thought it would be fitting to finish with Ole Miss, being as though we finished our season last year with Ole Miss. And so our complete SEC preview is done. We spent a lot of time on the SEC teams that obviously Georgia will be playing. And other as well as all the other teams that Georgia's not slated to be playing, which was a little bit different this year, previewing Tennessee, previewing some of those teams that Georgia has been playing for the last few years. They won't be playing. Tennessee's a big one that's not on that schedule this year that we're used to. And I say that because you're going to hear in a minute some of the questions from the day. And there was a nice jab by a sports writer out of Athens when he asked Kirby about a question about Tennessee, but I won't spoil it. But if you've listened to it already, then you know what I'm talking about. But I thought it would be cool to to as a couple of like icebreakers. to to first start out by by the big kind of news that hit last night. But apparently some of this is I don't know if this is all rumor. It's been it happened a couple of months ago and it's just now getting, you know, broken day before SEC media days, maybe on purpose because, you know, Kirby didn't want to really be cornered with it today. But the big news out of Athens is that top One of the top wide receivers, I'm sorry, one of the top running back transfers in the portal that came to Georgia, Dante Daldell and was gonna be looked at to feel a lot of those carries that you know, that McCrae had last year, Josh McCray had last year, is actually season ending injury. for what I understand, it was an A T V accident. and so I I'm not sure on the information if this was actually a couple of months back, if this is recent. I know Kirby put it today as, you know, it's it's very uncertain right now if he will be back this year. And i i I I think it looks pretty you know, I think Kirby just says that because you're there really is no timetable, right? You don't you don't know how quick they'll recover. I mean you look at something like Lamad Hardy and you know, with the off season incident that happened where, you know, he was shot in his leg and a lot of questions around would he be back sooner rather than later? Would he play the majority of the year, only half the year? Like what does that look like? And, you know, obviously Eli Drinkowicz said yesterday that everything's looking to up and up and kinda made it really sound like that he was going to be ready to go week one for Missouri, which is really great for Missouri. But however, for Dante Daldell, this sounds like it is a definite season ending injury. And prayers out for the young man. I know this was he's transferring from Kentucky. This was his senior year. He was looking to fill some specific areas for Georgia. obviously Georgia has one of the top running back rooms in the country. You first look at the comments and the first things you see are, you know, people that are like, you know, next man up and things of that nature. And feel bad for the guy, but he was buried on the depth chart. But it's like realistically, you know how Georgia looks at this running back group. It's very much there's a one two, and then there's a there's a a a Josh McCray type guy last year who filled a void in certain situations. And I do think you'll see Dwight Phillips filling a lot of those third down role and responsibilities, kind of like a Cash Jones did last year. So even though you can look at the depth chart and go, how did he fit in the equation? and and he wasn't gonna see an immense amount of touches, you feel bad for the guy. And you look and you go, obviously we went out and got him, so he was gonna fill a void in this area that was going to help us tremendously. And so, but now, you know, our our our our biggest thing is to is to pray for a good recovery for him. Hopefully I've not I've not heard any details about it. I mean, I really don't know what happened, whether, you know, he had, you know, broken leg or You know, just I don't know the extent of it of what happened, but I do know it was bad enough to where he's out for the season. So, and it could have been something even, you know, as minor. I don't want to speculate. It could have been an ACL, it could have been something that was just, you know, merely you know, just a stroke of luck. That's what we hope. I mean, initially, you know, if it could be an injury that he can quickly heal from, be out this year, but you know, encourage him in the future of what he wants to do in sports and football, that's the ideal outcome. but we haven't heard much other than he's out for the season and it was an A T V accident and you you don't want to speculate too much, but we know that we didn't hear much past that. So hopefully it's not anything to where you know, there are parts of what he can do moving forward that can be dangerous or affect him in the long run of his health. in the future. That's the that's the prayer and that's the that's the best outcome for him. But with that being said, yeah, it is. I mean, it is next man up and Georgia has a very a a very deep running back room. I think a very talented running back room. you know, I know in the offseason a lot was said about Chauncey Phillips as well as you know I'm sorry, I said Chauncey Bills. Chauncey Bills is an NBA player. Chauncey Bowens and and Nate Frazier and what their dynamic was and how they're you know how they were working through NIL and was Chauncey a little bit, you know, edgy about the fact of he was gonna get the carries this year that he that he needed and wanted. but I also think a lot of the things that went on with Georgia in particular, and how their, you know, running back room was spun, how their NIL was spun. was definitely something that was more media based rather than what was actually coming out of the camp at Georgia. But with that being said, it is a deep room and yes, I mean, you know, next man up, there's there's a lot of there's a lot of great players in that room. one of the most talented rooms in the in all of college football this year. And so, but initially, like I said, ending with this, Dante Daldell, we we hope you get better very soon. our our goal is is to have you back to a hundred percent help, whether that be this year or next year, whether you're at Georgia or moving on to your career in football. we wish you the best and and sorry to hear this for him. As we enter into today, today's gonna be a little bit shorter than normal. We'll keep this a little bit I mean I mean we'll keep it as I don't know as short as possible. covering media data but as but as as information based as well as possible. So we're gonna dive right in. I'm going to like I said I'm not stellar with technology, but we're gonna jump right in. We're gonna hop in right here with Kirby. He opened up the presser right after thank right after Greg Sankey left the podium. He thanked Greg Sankey. He thanked the administration he thanked he thanked his staff he thanked a lot of people behind the scenes. and he talked a lot a bit about the leadership of this team. And he jumped out right out of the out of the gut with he jumped right out of the game with the gates, is what I'm trying to say. with Gunnar Stockton. Leadership. Very, very, you know, not very often do you see a player making two SEC media days. And for Gunnar Stockton, this is his second. Which says a lot about his leadership and what he means to Georgia. I thought it would be great to start right out of the gates with this clip. Let's hear what Kirby had to say about Gunnar Stockton right out of the back. So yeah, so he hops right out with Gunner Stockton. And I I love hearing that. I mean, if you're a if you're a Georgia fan, you know what you're getting with Gunner Stockton immediately, right out of the gates. This is one of the first clips that just had me jumping out of my seat because I've seen the shots Gunner's taken. I've seen the media coverage that he That he doesn't get on a daily basis. it it's pretty, it's pretty wild for me. the direction that people have gone with the quarterback position. I think the quarterback position is just as much solidly based off of leadership as it is prototypical arm. athleticism, determination, I say determination, but just more of the the drive and the physical ability to play the position. And we've seen that a lot, right? I think I'm even mentioned a couple of days ago when I was going live about Tom Brady. Now, you know, if Tom Brady would have had the mindset of what he was supposed to be by what everybody said he was going to be, how they scouted him, what they gave him, what they said he was going to do and how he was going to perform and kind of how they rated him coming into the NFL. If if he just kind of settled for that, I think that Tom Brady would not be the person he is today. And he would definitely not be the quarterback and the Super Bowl champion, you know, multiple MVP winning seasons that he had would not be something that happened if he would have just said, I think I'm just gonna kind of have that mindset of this is kind of all I can do. I'm gonna have that fixed mindset. And I really look at at Gunner and I I kind of think the same thing. he's a guy that has taken a lot of hits. he's done a lot for his team. He's he's come in and he's taken criticism. Even when you go back and look at his play against Notre Dame in a year that I kind of call like, you know, like week zero per se with with Gunner. And to say that he took a lot of unwanted plaque. Sorry, clear my throat. A lot of unwanted flack for that. needless to say, probably unfair, right? Even last season, you know, you had a lot of, you know, why are we not why are we not stretching the field as the play calling? Why can't we be explosive? Why can't we throw the ball more than, you know, eight yards or four yards behind the line of scrimmage and all the above. And, you know, you look at Gunner, and even though he's not a guy on your list that I think athleticism wise and NFL draft wise and draftability and also just arm talent and all those things alone that keep him from those top one or two spots. I think what what you notice in that comment is the thing that keeps him very close to a lot of people's minds and why Georgia can do something like they did in the Stetson Bennett years is is Gunner's an incredible leader. And Gunner continues to land on lists of people that go, who do you want in that spot in clutch situations to win you a game. And the names that bounce back and forth are Trinidad Shambless, Gunnar Stockton. But as far as the gutsy, stick your head down, go to work type of guy, that's who, that's who Gunnar Stockton is. And I think, man, I think Georgia's extremely blessed to have him this year. That like, I mean you really look at a third year type scenario. And this is this is kind of the DNA of Georgia, right? You know, you look at Kirby's the most, I think he's he's gonna rely on what he's gonna rely on the most is is especially at that position is a quarterback he can trust, one that's bought into Georgia as a whole, and one that's gonna come in with the mentality every day and work hard and lead by example because I think Kirby, like myself and like a lot of people out there, is they look for that position to be a leadership position way before they look for it to be the the biggest talent position that needs to happen on the field. Kirby continued to go in. See, we're gonna fast forward to let's see, thirteen forty, I'm not mistaken. Let's get there real quick. Let's see what we got here. give me ahead of time. So let's see. So Kirby will entertain this question about if I can if I can find it real quick, about the run game and the defense and the dependency on the fact that Georgia, unlike some teams, relies a lot more on the run and you know, a lot more on defense than any other team, not only in the SEC but in college football. Very interesting question. I want you to hear what what Kirby says about this, and then we're gonna talk about it. Now, why is this so important? Because I know what everybody's gonna say with this. They're gonna be like, I think this is a key question because yes, Georgia has landed in that category statistically. And I don't think Kirby was standing on that stage and misleading anybody, but I think what Georgia has not done in the what have you done for me lately category is we haven't seen that from this offense in the past three years. When you look back at what this offense was when Stetson Bennett was the quarterback, you know, when you had Todd Munkin as your offensive coordinator, I think they're looking and going, we get that Kirby, but that was what we saw in those national championship years. But we've really yet to see that because he used the words explosive and we've said it multiple times this year that Georgia has said they're gonna have to be more explosive this year in the passing game to be successful. more plays of twenty yards, more, more hits, more higher percentage, forty, forty yard passes, you know, where we can hopefully set the run up to throw over the top with some of these, you know, big body wide receivers. But I think what people are gonna really kind of cling to in that question is is yeah, Kirby, I get that. That stat is that's really rich for you to say, being as though we don't really see that the past three years with this Mike Bobo offense and the inability in some people's case to to reach the style of football that we think Georgia can be at, which is we want to see us running the football very well, but we also want to see us being able to line up and throw the ball if we have to. And we feel like we have to maybe get too creative with how we pass the football in order to, you know. In order to get the results we need to be balanced. And I think that's why that question was incredibly like rich for this guy that to ask. I I think he's spot on too. I think he's saying what some people might be thinking this year. It's like, yeah, I get where you're in that category for the past five years, but was it really more of the past two out of five years? 'Cause the other three, it's like, Maybe we did enough to average out to be in the top five, but it doesn't feel that way. and I don't know. I mean, what do you guys think? I've have no idea what I I I would venture to say and we're we're gonna end in a little bit with what was asked about Mike Bobo and you know, we're gonna venture into that because we're covering SEC Media Days and we're not gonna shun away from some of the questions that he was he was given, but I do think that why people why this question was asked because it's another lead up to look and go, hey, i i is this a team that has to has to rely on the defense to play elite and then the football to be ran at a high level because at the end of the day, we're worried about turning the football over. We don't trust the passing game. We don't trust the offensive coordinator to come up with an elaborate scheme enough to be effective in the passing game. And so basically all we can do is have incredible athleticism at the wide receiver spot and throw dump screens and bubble screens and you name it whatever has a screen name in it to get who knows that will be this year the ball. I I I don't first think that you have that you know, that type of playmaker in Zachar in Zachariah branch last year is is is basically, you know, a one in a million type guy. that might be really you know, high statistically as far as a betting game, but I do think it's very unheard of to see a playmaker like that and what he was able to do in space and how we were able to get creative and get him the ball. And that just doesn't come around every year. You can't just substitute and go, all right, who's going to be that guy this year? You know, Sokovy White Hilton might be that guy, but you you you can't just assume that he's going to be able to be put in that position and get the productivity that he got. Because Zachariah Branch was a special A special guy. He was a special player. moving ahead to not bog down too much. We're gonna skip ahead to eighteen twenty five. I'm giving you man, there you go. That's what happens. We're we're not a we're not a professional podcast, so we get what's called, we get Get commercials. That's what we get here. And we are going to mute this real quick so we don't hear it. Finish this commercial out. And then we will skip ahead. Turn this back up. We will skip to eighteen twenty five, where we're gonna cover I'm sorry. No no sixteen forty eight. Here's Here's one we can stick at right here. this is a gentleman. let hear this one. This is good. Let you roll this one right now. Well, there you go. that one right there will be viral all week long. a lot of people were tagging this to me today, sent it out to me, and I was super, you know, I I don't know, man. Like a lot of people look at Kirby and you know, you look at the phone. You look at the fact that, excuse me, that Kirby is kind of known now, right? As the the the more hired tenured coach, taking over kind of the Nick Saban role of this SEC league. And so when you look at that and you look what Kirby brings to that, you kind of start to expect these type of interviews and how these questions come to happen. And you used to see a little bit of these with with Nick Saban, but you didn't see them a lot. lot of people are like, they feel like they're, you know, they're they're kind of scared to ask Kirby questions at these media days because you are gonna get that, you know, kind of Nick Saban straightforward answer. However, this is a very interesting comment because there's no secret that, you know, we've said this if you look at every single Athlon Sports, every magazine that's covering preseason rankings and things of that nature, they said the same thing. They said, you know, this wide receiver room is going to be very interesting. They didn't go out and they didn't they didn't find a guy in the portal. They didn't go after a big name. They didn't go after a Cam Coleman of that ma you know, of that manner or an Isaiah Horton or, you know, when when these guys were hitting the portal, Georgia wasn't in there, which says a lot about what? Do they feel like they have exactly what they need, especially with some of these guys in year, you know, three or four, some of these guys in year two that should progress. I mean, you look at the the names across this, I mean, let's not forget, even though I made that comment, that they did go out and get a guy they really liked, they really wanted. They they talked about the backstory of Isaiah Cannon and and what he can bring to Georgia's offense. big body playmaking wide receiver that I think we can't shortchange his productivity in the spring game. You can't really look at the spring game and go, okay, if what we see in that game is basically what we're gonna get in the fall, I think the the playbook is very vanilla. I think coaches are very, very dialed in and concentrating on what they show other teams and how they can basically have a scout video out. I mean Kirby's one of the only coaches, not only the SEC conference, but in college football, to put to televise the spring game. So that in itself is huge. And so, but with that, I mean Kirby's also he's not dumb. Like you're not gonna see this elaborate version of the playbook. So I do think Isaiah Cannon is gonna bring a lot of productivity to this wide receiver room. Other names, obviously, that you're gonna mention. Taylon Taylor, I mean Everybody's looking at Tylon Taylor and going, look, this guy was a five star. He came in. We're notorious for either I mean, it it's so weird, man. It's like you you look at the productivity at the wide receiver area, and we can all see with Zachariah Branch and Colby Young and things like that in the last few years. It's like, are we getting players that are already developed that are able to come in and be plugged in and to take the offense to another level? These are guys who have been plugged into our system, not Canon. But like, you know, you look at Taylor Taylor, he's been plugged into our system. So in year two, how is that gonna transfer in? Are we really able to develop our wide receivers at a high level? Is James Coley gonna make his money this year finally? And you're gonna see this is the reason why we brought James Coley and not based off of play calling or not based off of the passing game, not based off of recruiting, which he does do a great job recruiting, but does it pay off in terms of his development? What is huge in the area of developing wide receivers at this level? obviously Sakovy White Helton, a guy that's been sticking around. He, he, he carries really good speed. He can he be a guy to stick in that slot position? And nobody's gonna be Zachariah Branch, but can he take on some of those responsibilities to offset some of what Zachariah Branch was able to do last year? Maybe. He has great speed. He has good hands. He's depend he has to bend to pill. He has a lot of upside. But does it all, this is the year where you look and go, does it all connect, right? For Sokovi White Helton. You want you you hope so. But you gotta remember, it seems like Sakovy White's been in this system for a long time. He he he has, but he's only a he's only a sophomore. He's red shirt sophomore. This will be his third year in the program. you know, you look at you look at some of the you know, Landon Raw Dawn, you look at Craig Dandridge, you look at Tyler Williams. You look at some of these guys, London Humphreys, I think I said London Humphreys, Isaiah Cannon, CJ Wiley, Thomas Blackshire, a lot of these guys are gonna get a lot of touches. a name coming out of Georgia that we saw in the spring game that I think a lot of people don't understand that are gonna that that are gonna be intentional about getting some touches this year because he's an exciting playmaker that Georgia is extremely excited excited about is Craig Dandres. This is a high profile freshman that Georgia is really high on. he's he's elusive, he's speedy, he's got good hands. he was a guy that a lot of the quarterbacks were really targeting. and that says a lot about a freshman. When you get, you know, quarterbacks like Gunnar Stockton and Ryan Puglisi who have been in the system who are targeting this kid over and over and over, that n that seems to that that says to me that they've created some relation with him and they trust him in some areas and they've seen some areas that he can make us better. so you know, with that being said, when you look at the names. And you look at what you think we can do with these receivers on top of the tight end room, I think you're gonna see Caden Prothrow lining up in some very what I would call exotic formations that has him, you know, gives him the ability in the slot to take on some roles that are different, that are exotic, that are gonna stretch defenses in certain ways. and I think this is a way to get him some touches early on in his career. He's a guy that in a tight end room that's very loaded that has to find a way to get on the field because he's a five star guy that can make things happen. And he did it in you know, he did it in high school and we wanna make sure and get him touches and get him an opportunity to to change the game in every way he possibly can. But with that being said, moving on. So there was let's let's move to eighteen twenty five here where there was a question about Tennessee, this one will be going viral everywhere. here let's add this one and let's hear this comment. Wow, right. obviously everybody knows Tennessee is not scheduled to play Georgia this year. first time in a while, right? And obviously we know that Tennessee has hasn't beat Georgia in a long time. I think the actual date is sometime that goes back into twenty sixteen. Don't quote me on that. But also this isn't, you know, sidebar. This is an exact reason, You know, I could have basically said we're live from ten miles away from, you know, SEC Media Days in Tampa, but I didn't do that. We're from we're coming live from my from my home tonight. but I am ten minutes from where SEC Media Days is going on, and I still am putting it out there that I I was you know, I really was hoping to get some credentials for SEC Media Days. I didn't get it, but this guy apparently did. And if you go back and you can Check out the YouTube video on this guy. If that's what can get into SEC media days, then my hope is I'm not far off. I'm gonna get my call. I'm gonna get my call soon because my hair might look a little bit better. I might have a better question. And you know, I might just represent journalism, is that what you call it, or just I don't know, podcasting and sports influencer. I don't know what what he is and what he does, but I think I'd have a better question and a better look than this guy. but the question he had is is is just another way the media tr tries to stir the you know this up. I think Tennessee's gonna be really good this year. I think they're gonna have some sleeper some sleeper things go on with them. I think Faison Brandon, George McIntyre, whoever wins that battle, I think it's leaned a little bit more towards Faison Brandon but I think they have an opportunity to be very good this year. it will be a freshman under center, no matter how you look at it. it's a Josh Hipel offense. He's always gonna find a way to be really good. He's gonna always find a way to score points. Jim Knowles takes this defense over. he has a great offensive line as well this year. Josh Hypel does. It's gonna take some pressure off of this freshman quarterback. And I think they're gonna be able to run the ball really well. So for Georgia. I would definitely say on top of the other, you know, the Georgia Auburn game, playing Oklahoma this year, playing Ole Miss again, Alabama again, Florida neutral. So I you know, I'm not saying we're ducking Tennessee, but it's another weird i especially in a nine game SEC schedule. Another weird look at the fact of just how loaded the SEC is. I think Tennessee's gonna be really good. And I think Kirby did not take the bait and he said a really good comment, or he's like, he is. Hypole's very hard to get prepared for. He's very hard to understand how he's gonna attack your offense. And I think what makes Josh Heipel in Tennessee even more dangerous this year is the fact that they have a great offensive line. They're gonna be able to run the football. And Jim Knowles is your defensive coordinator. And if he can make some the the right moves and the right changes and get this defense going the right direction, Tennessee could be a sleeper. But also what should worry people is Tennessee could start to to build on this, especially recruiting wise and They have been no slouch in the portal nor the recruiting the the recruiting rankings to where they can get back to being a team that is vying for a national championship every year. but this, although this was like a rebuilding year, there's a lot of pieces of this team for Tennessee, not to spend too much time on them, that could say outside pick or touchball playoff, depending on how it falls. It is hard to play in Knoxville, man. And that's why Kirby said it very clearly. He said, That's your comment, that's not mine. But I will say that a lot of people look back and they remember the Tennessee game from last year. I think maybe a little less similar situation because, you know, the quarterback wasn't a freshman. He was, you know, he played numerous snaps, in Division I live football games and things of that nature. and Joey Eichlar, of course, but, you know, if he can If he can come in and do that in a Josh Hypel offense, I see no reason why Faison Brandon or George McIntyre can't do the same. pressing ahead, Mike Griffin, man. Love what Mike Griffin does. Shout out Mike Griffin. also asking Mike Griffin. There we are again, man. we don't get our we need we need YouTube. we need everybody to go follow and like so we can get our uppage on our our prime YouTube description. Let's let's see, let's get this shared over here real quick. And let's listen to what Mike Griffin had to say, which I thought was very interesting. I love Mike Griffin, love what he does, love how he reports on Georgia football. Super excited to bring to you what he had to say. Here we go. Yeah, so I think I think you know exactly where he's going here. You know, when you look at you know, when you go back and you look at last year and you look at how long we waited to play between the SEC championship and the Sugar Bowl, it's like you start to wonder, and we've seen in the past years, is that bye week really good for those bye week teams? Because I feel like those teams that had to go Play a game, play a week, prepare, and just continue to go hop in, grind it out. Kirby's saying that, you know, that's how Georgia's built. We're not built to sit there. We're built to continuously go. We're built for for playing, you know, at a at a pace where, you know, we're good with we're week in and week out. We keep going, we keep motivated. It's hard to keep a team motivated for twenty five days having practices, but also keep them healthy. get creative on how you do things to keep culture going, to look at look at the team from the top down. But also in that whole time frame, you're also recruiting. You're also looking at transfer portal. You got people already transferring. You you're you're not even you're you're trying to coach your team to a national championship while you're already in the middle of building your team of the future. It's hard. It's very hard. It is, and Kirby said it. He's like, I I'm fine with talking about the the business side of college football, but it's not what I like doing. It's not what I prefer to do because if we if we set our mind too far on those types of logistics, you become a team that's more worried about that and less more worried about winning football games. And it's very hard to get your team prepared mentally and physically to be offered that amount of days and to go win football games. And so I thought I thought that was a really vital comment that he said. And you know, Kirby's n it he said it over and over and over. He has no problem talking about NIL and, you know, where sports is going and things of that nature. But what he has been the most upfront about is that you're not thinking about the dynamic of all colleges across the America, all college sports across America and how it affects them, right? because this guy's like I mean, I know what Kirby's thinking of. I'm taking the words out of his mouth. He's like, you know, when you look at a five star halfback that people are looking at and go, man, he's in the hits the transfer portal and he gets two, three million dollars. It's like, okay, but like, I got I have great swimmers, I have great, great divers, I have great gymnastics people, track and field, equestrian, you name it, we have it. Georgia is very passionate. I think Josh Brooks does an incredible job overall with our athletics as a whole. I mean, one of the first times in the past 15 to 20 years that The SEC champion has come in baseball and football out of the same school. obviously that you know, this past season, Georgia making that incredible run to win the SEC regular season championship, win the SEC tournament to go into the to get into that regional and to not I'm sorry, to get into the College World Series and to not be able to finish the drill. But what an incredible year. What an incredible year for West Johnson and the players. But That's what Kirby's saying. He's like, look, this is across the board. We have to be able to support these ideas across the board, not just in football. And so I think that's a key thing. And then to end it all off, we're gonna slip over to twenty four twenty. Let me share the screen real quick. Thanks, thanks everybody, for being patient tonight. I want to get you really good content from all parts of Kirby's presser today. So we're gonna slip over to twenty four sixteen boards. This is the last comment and we'll pop in on this one, but let's hear this one. So you couldn't go an SEC Media Day without hearing about Mike Boba. I I I don't think that it would be I don't think it would be an SEC Media Day. I think you would probably kinda go, was that really what happened? we went a whole SEC Media Day without talking about the offensive coordinator at the University of Georgia. something key he said. Something key he said, but also something That you're gonna hear later on. I want to give it away. But Drew Bobo talked about having his dad also as his coach. And they asked, they said, you know, you're not necessarily, he's not directly coaching you all the time. And you could see Drew Bobo kind of look and go, he kind of he kind of twitched a little bit, which told me it's like, no, like he's on the field, he's treating me like every other player. He's talking directly to me. He's the offensive coordinator. And Kirby described Drew Bobo as as playing a position that is not at all you know, appreciated enough. if it goes wrong, it's his fault, but if it goes right, nobody really cares about him. but he talks about how he's his dad when it's time to be a dad off the field, and it doesn't affect football doesn't affect that relationship. And then and then family doesn't affect football on the field. He's very business. He talks to him, he he's direct with him about. Everything he needs to be and treats him just like he's another guy on the team, which is crucial. Now, why is that very important in what Kirby just said? He said it. He said, I might not have the offensive coordinator that you guys seem to think we need, but Mike Bobo is the offense, Mike Bobo is the offensive coordinator for Georgia, and he's what Georgia needs. He's right for Georgia. Let me rephrase that. I say it again. The media tends to want to pull it out of Kirby and go, Don't you think you can do better than Mike Bobo? Is he the right coordinator for Georgia? And he reiterated with the fact of it's not every when you look at coordinators, it's not sometimes just what they can bring to the play calling. It's what can they bring to the development of players, how they can get people in the right, you know, positioning, how they can get the best out of the quarterback and their abilities, the receivers, the running backs, et cetera. I think the ways we were kudos to Mike Bobo last year and the ways he was able to get the ball to Zachariah Branch. I mean, I think you can look back and go, Mike Bobo created ways to get the ball to Zachariah Branch, that USC and this mastermind of an offensive coordinator. Lincoln Riley could not do. And if you would have gone off of how they were going to use him in USC's offense, I venture out to say that Zachariah Branch would not be even picked because he wouldn't get enough touches. He wouldn't get seen. With what you saw from him out of USC, you had to really go deep dive into what some of his clips looked like. They weren't just out there and at the forefront of everybody's mind as far as this is a guy you got to watch out for. You didn't see that at UFC. I think you saw leadership, I think you saw elusiveness, I think you saw incredible saw incredible hands, I think you saw a guy that when he gets the ball in space, he's as good as anybody, not only in college football, but he could be as good as anybody in the NFL. And so I think that's what he brings to the table. I think Mike Bobo, he's not gonna always please you and he's not gonna always make you happy in the area of exotic play calling and you know. Will Stein, Oregon, and you know, Tex C and throwing the ball around and all these teams that basically don't let the ball, you know, Ole Miss L S U, that don't let the ball touch the ground much. That's not what Georgia's about, right? You know Georgia g wants to be balanced. You know Georgia wants to play great defense, run the football and they want to complement it with explosive plays in the passing game. Period. That's all it is to it. So as we close the night too, a couple things that were said. I know I said I wasn't gonna go as long tonight, but we're pressing into about an hour. But things were talked about in the leadership aspect. One of the one of the teams they covered as far as the leadership was concerned was the the OKC Thunder. They talked about a lot about trying to find these are my icebreakers. they talked a lot about like being un like a unselfish leadership, worried more about everybody else is getting their goals, you know, i they they they talked about sacrifice, playing each playing together, playing for each other, staying humble, becoming the the kind of football team that you know That basically resemble championship not belonging to the most talented, but the players who are willing to go above and beyond for each other. I thought that was key, is crucial. And so he's bringing that camaraderie of, hey, l worry less. And that's a that's a mess that's sneaky, right? That just goes how goes to show how smart Kirby is because he's basically looking and he's kind of giving a message to also the recruits. Hey, it's not just about you. It's about who you are when you come in and how you can function with a team. Because we're not gonna go out and win football games just because you are the best team football player on the team. Also because you get all the catches, you get all the touches and by the way, you want all the money. It's about how do we build a team and can reward everybody on that team to in in terms of name, images, image and likenesses, and then go out and win a national championship win football game. Period. He talked about that he was that that Georgia's a retention team. might be the quote of the day if I if if in in my honesty he said he said Georgia wants to be a retention team in today's college football world it's a bold statement everyone is chasing transfers Georgia wants to develop players keep players build leaders his philosophy is not going to change you know when he looks at recruiting developing retaining and repeating it's kind of how he described it he talked about how he admitted that you know coaching has changed dramatically and how he's balancing recruiting and NIL and portal and parents and agents and roster retention. And I I think Kirby in the back in the in the in the background, he's doing a lot of this stuff, but I I agree earlier he has a really great staff. And there's people just 'cause he's not at the forefront going, This is my NIL guy, I think there's a lot of people behind the scenes that are helping Kirby get this done. he was asked the question, you know, about being the longest tenure coach in the SEC. He he is very proud of that. He looks up to Nick Saban a lot. has has referenced him as one of the best college football players ever to step between the lines in college football, being Nick Saban looks up to him a lot. talked about the identity of the football team. I encourage you to go listen to the entire 25 minute interview. Very exciting. We'll definitely get you pumped up. I thought it would be cool to end with some just some thoughts as far as carrying over into once we start breaking position groups down, once we start breaking into kind of covering Georgia and a huge blimp snapchot, you know, snapshot. I almost said snapchat, snapshot of what this team is gonna look like and how it's gonna be put together. We're gonna look at what we think they're projected. starting lineup will be on the offense, defense, special teams, all those things. I wanted to ask a few questions that are being asked all around college football as pertainings to Georgia, as well as a lot of a lot of it was asked to a lot of the Georgia players, as well as Kirby Smart. You know, one of the questions is, is who becomes Georgia's offensive playmaker this year? Who's a guy that right out of the box can fill some voids like a Zachariah branch? a Nate Frazier. That's probably wild, right? Because it's like, well, Nate Frazier's coming back. Well, can Nate Frazier actually finally fit into those shoes that everybody looks and goes, Can he be a thousand yard rusher? Can he take the pressure of making plays that are Zachariah branch-esque type plays to take some of that reliability factor on the offense off of Venner Stockton? I think he can. but let's go rapid fire to finish out the night. So one breakout player. I I'll be honest with you, I think for me, if I had to name one offense and defense. man, I I wanna go immediately to I wanna go immediately to the wide receiver room, but I'm I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna go with breakout player. I I think Zike Helton, man, the opportunity to start at right guard this year as a freshman, a guy who came in as a undervalued recruit, an under-recruited person, and for Georgia to go out. To be able to see what this guy really was made of, recruit him fairly, bring him onto this team, and him possibly start on an offensive line that a lot of people are saying is one of the best, if not the best, offensive line in college football, definitely in the SEC. To have the opportunity as a freshman to start on that line and to play on that line at a high level is incredible. So I don't think I don't I I don't have the flashy pick you want, but I think Zaike Helton for me. is a s is gonna be a breakout player. And then on defense, I think a name that has star potential that could come around this year that you haven't heard that has a breakout opportunity, in my opinion, is Zaydan Walker. I think Zayden Walker is prime to come into that linebacker room and to really round out this linebacker group and make it make it really good, make it make it deadly. I think this is gonna be a defense that could get get us back to the days of when it was fun. To watch the defense take the field because you just knew you weren't gonna get much. You knew you weren't gonna get much. who surprises everyone? for me, I I I think when I think of surprises, I think I think this is where I think Taylon Taylor comes into play. I think Talon Taylor is gonna surprise some people. I think this receiver room is gonna surprise some people. I think Isaiah Cannon could could could provide some, you know, surprises, but I think that would only be because he's coming from another team and everything's gonna be a surprise. I think a lot of people were surprised at Zachariat Branch. But if I had to call a name as Talon Taylor, I think he's going to surprise some people with his athleticism, his speed, and just his five star ability to shine through and finally go, Hey, this is why Talon Taylor was recruited so highly at Georgia and brought in and retained and to let know, hey, we're not looking for any anybody in the portal because we really have we believe in you guys. and on the defensive side of the ball, this was a tough one as well. but I think somebody who could really catch you off guard, in my humble opinion. man, this is a tough one, but I I feel like there's some names you don't know, but if I had to just go I really, I really think Khalil Barnes is going to be somebody that Tyree Green was on this list as well. I think he's another freshman that it's like, I don't really know who this is, but man, Georgia speaks very highly of Tyree Green. And he could be a guy that sees a lot of snaps this year that everybody's like, Who is this kid? Right. Georgia loves this kid. He played running back, he played everywhere in high school. This could be a kid. So I'm I'm a between Khalil Barnes because nobody's seen Khalil Barnes. And what he's gonna add to this secondary that's already a really good secondary. between him, I think because you haven't seen a lot of Khalil Barnes, but the shocker would be Tyree Green, 'cause I think you could see Tyree Green getting some major snaps very early on, this season. next one, you know, will Georgia have a one thousand yard receiver? I don't know. I I I think Georgia spreads the ball around so much and I think when you look at receiving, you're gonna see so many tight ends that have the opportunity to play this year and I think you're gonna see a lot of receivers this year. I I I can't confidently say I think you're gonna see a thousand yard receiver. That's not how Georgia does things. so I don't think you see a thousand yard receiver this year, but I do think you see a lot of naysayers get shut up real quick this year in how Georgia uses that receiver room as well as that tight end room. next question, who leads the team in sacks? man, I I I wanna sit there and tell you, you know. that this was an easy one as well. I do think ideally you could look at I mean, you could look at an Elijah Griffin and go, man, i i is this his year to shine in that area. You could look at a Chris Cole. you could look at a Raylan Wilson, you could look at a a Justin Williams as Aiden Walker. Ideally, a guy that's in the best position probably to do this though is gonna be In my opinion, it I I think it's going to be an Elijah Griffin or it's going to be a Chris Cole. one of those guys has I I mean, i if they are, if those one of those guys are leading the team in a in an immense way, George is gonna George is gonna do really, really well this year. But I think I think you look at one of those guys as being a guy who toast the who toast the stat pad in there. Which freshman plays the biggest role this year? I think it's very evident that. on the offensive side of the ball, somebody that man, I mean, you kind of want to go back to Zike E. Helton on this, but I say keep your eyes open for Caden Pro Throw and how they use him in that offense this year. especially lining up in the slot on defense, I think freshman wise, man, I'm just I'm high on Tyree Green, man. I'm high on Tyree Green and I think he's gonna shock some people. And I think you might see Tyree Green in this lineup as a game changer. very quickly. Last one, you know, what everybody wants to hear is what, you know, what are the outcome for the SEC? Does Georgia make the college football playoff? I think Georgia, biggest takeaway from all of this is Georgia is, I think is bound for a college football playoff appearance appearance. I think this is gonna be a year that is going to be very strong for Georgia. and this is this is this is kind of my last End all be all tonight, wrapping up media days for Georgia is this is a team that has leadership. Kirby mentioned it. It's the best leadership team. It's the best leadership he's had in a long time on a team. So he's he's very happy about where Gunner and Raylan and and Drew and a lot of the other guys that are stepping up is is taking the team as far as their mentality and leadership. you see a you see a Gunner Stockton who You just you you just feel like you can bet on Gunner, man. He's such a gutsy guy. He's a guy everybody wants in clutch situations. He's tough. He's he's he leads by example. He's not gonna be flashy off the field and talk a lot of a lot off the field. And but when he's in the huddling, when he's around that team, everybody knows who the leader of that team is. so that's huge leadership on this team. I think the talent as far as the the the offensive line, the the the running back depth, the ability to run the football this year. I think that that my bobo will find ways to get these receivers and tight ends the ball. maybe more so the tight ends to take some of the pressure off the wide receivers. I look for the run game to present some opportunities to take the top off the defense, which we haven't had in a long time. And I look at this defense to make it look fun against not make us hold our breath as far as the secondary and to create explosive plays, to get sacks and to be able to get quarterback curries and make them, you know, make dumb decisions so the defense can capitalize on it, put the offense in better, in better scenarios. And I do think that all those things produce a college football playoff appearance and another appearance in the SEC championship. so I I I I like the odds of that. So that's it. SEC meety days for Georgia is a wrap. it's come to a close and we are officially in go mode. as far as we'll have a couple of weeks of breaking down Georgia, talking through some different position groups and really breaking down what they bring to the table and what we can look for and as we continue to talk about cover stories going into fall camp. it's gonna be exciting. And then we're gonna cover fall fall camp at a at a full go and then we are into the season before you know it. So Anyways, that's a wrap from I'll I'll say it from ten minutes outside of SEC and Media Days in Tampa, Florida. and glad you guys joined. If you haven't already done so, I have to always plug this. Thank you so much for all of your participation and your follows and your likes. And man, YouTube is is blowing up and I appreciate all the likes and follows. If you're following us on YouTube, go like us, share the share the podcast and Tell everybody to go and support. we're happy to to bring wholesome material and to you guys. And I enjoy doing that as well as twenty-four hours later on Spotify, Apple Podcast. go you can listen to episode one eight right now as we finish up our SEC preview. And if you really want to go back and do a a crash course of the entire summer, you can go back around 102 through 108 and get our preview of all fifteen besides Georgia SEC teams. in the league this year and where we think they're gonna be and what they're bringing to the table, whether they play George in the regular season or may meet them possibly in the SEC championship or playoffs. and then later on, I'm sorry, and then you can find us on Facebook where we're live now, Dogs Down South, as well as basically any other podcasting platform out there. Please go like, follow, and support as well as TikTok, Dogs Down South, where we will get some of these some of these snippets up. as early as this evening. So thanks for joining. You guys have a great night. This is a closure for Georgia on SEC Media Days. We still have two more days to go, so be interested to see what some of these other teams are talking about. Still have, I think, Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkeesian, all these guys take the podium to hear what they say. But for tonight, it's a wrap. And I hope everybody has a great rest of the week. Look forward to seeing you next time. And as always on Dogs Down South, go dog.