7 hours ago 11

WATCH: Kirby Smart and Georgia players’ pressers

Kirby Smart

On overcoming the adversity of schedule change and delays due to weather…
“You can use that as an excuse, but the rain was there for both of us. We anticipated it. I don’t think that I’ve ever had a delay that long. I’ve been a part of a couple delays in my career, but that was a long one. We strategically handled that well. I really thought we came out of the delay with some juice. It was cool out, the music was good, the fans were excited, players were excited, it wasn’t near as hot. We came out and got a three-and-out, came down to score, and seized the momentum, so I was really proud of our guys for that.”

On not being able to convert on the drive before halftime…
“Not ideal. We had a great drive. We got the ball back, moved the ball down the field. We had four plays where the ball was inside the one and didn’t score. Over and over and over, we didn’t cash it in. That was frustrating and left a bad taste in our mouth before the break but we needed some adversity and that gave us some.”

On the defensive performance…
“There’s a lot of pride in that red area defense. Coach Schumann takes a lot of pride in that and we work hard on that each week. It’s where points are made and games are won. I thought we did a great job of holding these guys. I thought Austin Peay was a really good team. They have a good offense, they know what they’re doing. I was really proud of how our defense played.”