Georgia Bulldogs College Football Pregame Quote, 11/02/2020

I will open with a quick comment about Richard LeCounte and his situation. Obviously, thoughts and prayers go out to his family and Richard. I was updated by Ron [Courson] ‚Äî he was moved from an ICU room to a regular room, which was a good step, good news. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. He’s got wonderful parents and we’ve been in communication with those guys. They have been up here, been able to be with him during this time. I know our team sent a bunch of video messages and things like that to him yesterday, and we are all hopeful and expect a full recovery.

With that, I will move on to Florida. Dan [Mullen] has done a great job there with their team preparing those guys. They are high-powered, got a lot of really good skill players, an experienced quarterback. They throw and catch the ball really well. They have a really good unit and a good team. I thought the defense played really well against Missouri. Todd [Grantham] has them playing really hard. It was the first time they had lot of their core guys back up-front, and they’ve got some big guys up-front. They’ve got a really good team, really good special teams, so ‚Äî as always ‚Äî it should be a great game.

On what makes Stetson Bennett the starter and if there is anything physically holding JT Daniels back:

The only physical limitations [with JT] are still coming off the knee, which he hasn’t shown a lot of ailments coming off the knee. He’s been out of the brace, been able to throw the ball. He’s done a good job. He actually comes down and throws on the scout team and competes and does a really nice job down there with us. Again, the decisions we make as coaches are decisions we have to make. They are tough decisions, no different than they are at who plays corner, who plays tackle. There are a lot of really good competitions out there going on. Ultimately, we feel like Stetson gives us the best chance to win right now. D’Wan [Mathis] gets a lot of work, a lot reps, and competes really hard at that and continues to improve. When he shows us that he is the better guy, then he will be the guy up. Same thing with JT ‚Äî JT probably doesn’t get as many opportunities as Stetson does and D’Wan does because we works with us some down there on the scout team. But, at the end of the days guys, the decision has to be made by us that gives us the best chance to win. We do that based on the total body of work. Those are decisions that have to be made.

On injuries on the defensive side of the ball:

It’s a laundry list. You would probably be better off asking me specifically about guys because I do not really know ‚Äî we haven’t had a chance to practice, so I will find more out throughout the week, throughout the day. We think Quay [Walker] is going to be fine, we think he is going to be able to play. Julian [Rochester] is probably out. Jordan [Davis] we are going to find out more on. We are hopeful he is able to play. Lewis [Cine] we think is going to be fine. He had an ankle sprain. Obviously, Richard [LeCounte] is probably out ‚Äî I mean Richard is not going to be able to play. We do not know when we will be able to get Richard back. Past that, I do not know who you would be asking about.

On expounding on Jordan Davis and what the safety position looks like considering what they will have to cover this week:

Chris [Smith] has played a lot for us. Richard came out of the one game for targeting, and then he came in and played for Lewis the other day. We feel like Chris has gotten a lot of experience. Chris works really hard in practice and he is ready to play. Tyrique Stevenson has worked back there, [Latavious] Brini has worked back there. We’ve had Major Burns work back there, so that’s what it looks like at safety.Then, like I said on Jordan [Davis], we will find out more as the week goes on.

On how to stop Florida tight end Kyle Pitts:

He’s really a great player. Any time you play a great player you’ve got to have a good game plan. Like you said, I don’t think anybody is stopping him. It’s limiting explosives, matching up, winning some 50/50 balls ‚Äî that’s what he’s best at. It’s impossible ‚Äî people think you can just double cover him. You can’t do that. They put him in places where you can’t double him and you’ve got to do other things to other people. They’ve got other good players besides just him and the quarterback knows where to throw the ball to give him a shot. There’s not an easy answer for that. It’s not like a text book answer of this is how you stop him. You are not going to do that. What you do is contain him and hope that you don’t get hit on explosive and that the team understands where he is.

On offensive injuries and if he expects George Pickens, Kenny McIntosh, Matt Landers, and Ben Cleveland to play:

Ben [Cleveland] should be fine. George [Pickens] and Kenny [McIntosh] are continuing to work and do what they did last week. We are hopeful they’re able to play. They’re certainly further out from their injuries and we are hopeful they’ll be able to. I can’t tell you anymore other than that because I don’t know a lot. They’re rehabbing every day, Ron [Courson] updates us every day and we are hopeful they’re able to play. Matt [Landers] should be able to go.

On defensive injuries, specifically Tyrique Stevenson and Jordan Davis:

Jordan [Davis] is going to be day-to-day. Jordan has a chance to be able to play and we are hopeful he’s able to play. It is his elbow, his injury. We’re hopeful to be able to get him in a brace and don’t know if he’ll be able to play or not, we haven’t practiced. Tyrique [Stevenson] is fine.

On if he thinks he’s getting the level of quarterback play he needs in order to get where he wants to get and where can they improve:

We can improve in a lot of ways. We can improve by protecting the ball, sliding once you make a good decision to run and when you get near contact you can get down. Making good decisions with the ball, in terms of if you’re going to throw it out of bounds, throw it out of bounds and if you’re going to hit the check down, hit the check down. There’s a lot of places we can improve. We can improve with our route-running, route-communication, our ability to finish blocks on the perimeter when we get the ball on the perimeter. There’s tons of places we can improve.