Couple days in so far. How’s practice been this week? Went great yesterday. I hate it when you change routine, but we don’t. We didn’t do anything with the player. Players didn’t have anything to do Sunday and they didn’t have school Monday. And I don’t know, historically, the years I’ve been here, Monday’s not great. Of Labor Day cause they lay around all day Sunday, and then they lay around all day Monday cause they don’t have classes. And then they come over here and um, didn’t have a great day. But, um, today was much better. I think maybe it had something to do with the weather. It’s a little cooler today. And there were good spirits. We had good practice. Yeah, coach, I think I saw 13 true freshmen made their debut on Saturday against Clemson. What does that say about your program? And displaying time get used against you on the recruiting trail? I don’t know about playing time. I think. I think we can disprove that with the guys that have started and played. I may get used, but it doesn’t work very effectively cause we have as many freshman, All Americans, as many freshman play as anybody in the country. So I don’t know how effective it is, but I don’t know. I would. I would be interested to see how 13 compared to other years. Obviously the type of game you play in um would dictate. That mean. You know, last year I had More than 13 play because of the score and the differential. A couple years ago against Clemson, probably didn’t have many. I know one that did, but I don’t know many more than that one. But every year is different, you know, it’s not about. It’s about their development. so many freshmen across the country right now are so caught up in, am I gonna play? Am I gonna play this week? Am I gonna travel? What am I doing? Did I make the right decision? Cause all they got to think about is the alternative of where I can go. And if you just be where your feet are and get better, you’ll come out on top in the end. Coach kind of fall off on that. How much more are freshmen more ready to play now than they were five, 10 years ago? Oh, they’re not. They’re not. Oh no. They’re having to play out of necessity, having to play out of the fact that we got more transient rosters. I mean, they’re not anymore ready to play physically, mentally, at disposition. Not many freshmen are. I’mma say this, in our league, playing in our league, SEC to SEC, if you’re playing with a lot of freshmen, you’re in trouble cause they’re not physically developed. That doesn’t mean one can’t do it. But you don’t wanna be out there playing with a lot of freshmen. Kirby, as you go back and watch the film from Saturday, What stood out to you about the way that Raylan played? I haven’t gone back and watch the film from Saturday since like, Saturday night. That game’s over and done. I’ll speak about Raylan, but I can’t tell you the first thing cause I’m on and. And pop it to the next one. Raylan, uh, worked really hard in camp. He had some struggles with cramping, and he wasn’t able to finish some. Some practices, and then he. He missed a little time. Not really injured, just not being able to. To finish it up. And, um, I thought that hurt his stamina in camp. And then the last week, he started playing better and better and better in practice, and then that carried over a little bit into the game. I think he’s much more confident in the scheme. Um, he’s seeing things well. He has some nice plays. So I said he’s a really good athlete. You have to kind of just follow up on linebackers. You talked a lot about how offenses changed playing more in space. How does that changed? How do you recruit? I guess inside linebackers specifically, as much as they have to play in space, cover tight ends, everything like that. Yeah, it’s a premium now to. It probably used to go, you know, size, speed, toughness, keys. And now it goes, speed, intelligence, space, player size, you know, toughness. It just changes the order. Um, because it’s. It’s a priority to have Length. It’s a priority to be able to match up and play in space. You got to be able to run cover down. I mean, you’re in conflict every play. You got this gap, but you also got to go play the bubble. You gotta. You gotta see counters, pulls, Rbos. It’s. It’s. It’s absolutely insane how much you’re having to spend now compared to 2,012. Yeah. What is Dan Jackson bring to this program? And what does it say about his ability that whether it’s Malachi veteran or KJ, whoever’s at that other safety spot, he’s able to keep that sort of secondary at that same high standard? Uh, Dan’s a product of toughness, the program. I mean, first of all, we’re lucky to have Dan Jackson, cause we fell into it and we didn’t do one thing to. To, to. To earn Dan being here. He, he. He came to us and. And he has made himself into a. A really good football player. But he did that through hard work. Um, he’s proof that if you stick around and you have toughness, and you’re smart, you’re gonna play. I mean, we got millions of examples of kids that have come here, have showed toughness, stuck around and played cash crafter, and all these guys have done it. And Georgia has a long history of great walk ons. And he’s. He’s one of those Howard Jordan Paul is doing now and he’s satisfied by his progress. Yeah, they’re Both. They’re both doing great, man. They were running today. Flying around sideline, like, just. Just running. Not. Not practicing, but running straight line cutting. I’m fired up. I know. Sunday or Monday, I looked out my office, and two days run together cause of Labor Day. But Jordan was out there smoking it across the field and excited. He was up 5:30 in the morning. Game day. Rehab it on his own. Beat Ron in there riding a bike in Atlanta. I mean, he is a. He is a different dude when it comes to. To rehab. He has attacked it and do it all in. I think he’s probably a little ahead of McCloud. McCloud’s dealing with a different muscle tissue type injury, and he also hasn’t really ever had a significant injury, so, um. But they’re both pushing. I want to ask you about non conference games. I know you play Georgia Tech every year. I wonder, with like, a percer or Georgia Southern or another in state school why they haven’t been on Georgia schedules and we have to see tech every year. Not the slightest clue. Can’t give you good input. I mean, the schedule I have now, as far as I know, I inherited it. If I didn’t inherit it and I’m lying to you, I don’t know. I didn’t. I didn’t go down the schedule and say, oh, let’s go play Tennessee Tech over Georgia Southern or Mercer. I mean, I don’t know. It’s Probably a better question for Josh Brooks. It kind of. On that note, I talked to Bobby Wilder today. He said he wasn’t thrilled about coming down and playing Georgia in Sanford Stadium. Lost his quarterback this past weekend. There’s, you know, there’s obviously those differences and everything. As you, you as the host coach, you’ve, you’ve been outspoken about, you want to help these programs out, you want to bring them in. How do you sort of balance that? You know, you don’t want anybody hurt. You don’t want to embarrass anybody. Did you still hold the check? He said he did. Absolutely did. He said. But there’s no other way, really, for them to do it than that. You know, that’s my point. I mean, I. Everybody can put me in a pigeon hole of, well, Kirby believes in these games. Kirby doesn’t believe in these games. I believe in the sport of football. And if you told me that the sport of football is gonna lose programs because they can’t sustain without the, the financial help, then, then I want to support that. I also want the financial support of our fan base. And if you pull them, data, I display, you know, Clemson, Notre Dame, you know, every week, play somebody, and I respect that, too. I enjoy that. I coached in the NFL. I’ve been around those kind of leagues. I mean, I’m sensitive to both of those things. I just think that if We’re gonna lose football at a lower level because of financial reasons. I’d rather try to sustain those programs and keep them up. Which, by the way, the quarterback he brought in played really well too, and is a really good athlete and. And you know, I mean, I hate it for the other kid, cause obviously he was the starter. Yeah. Coach, you can feel free to swap me away here, but do you dare take time to look at Kentucky this week at all? Yeah, I don’t have time. I don’t. I. What I do do is look at all the third one and fourth and one place in our conference. You know, all the explosive plays in our conference. And the tape was extremely long, um, considering there’s 60 and 70 point games out there. But it’s not looking at anybody specifically, it’s just what’s going on. I’d ask about a couple transfers. Michael Jackson, Jake Pope. How are they coming along? Both working hard, both doing good, both part of our culture and our program. Doing a legit good job of pushing and fighting for playing time. Why were you looking at the short yardage plays? Some sort of trend or is it just something you always do? Something I always do. You know, I think it’s important to. If I got to make the decision whether we’re going for it on third and one and fourth and one, I want to know what’s going on. You mentioned the work that hall and McCloud are getting this week. What are Janelle, Warren Branson, and Mike Kelly able to do this weekend? What specifically is it that Janelle is dealing with in terms of a pull? Uh, yes, a soft tissue injury. Janelle practiced and did everything today. I wouldn’t say he’s 100%, but he practiced and did everything. Um, Warren did some things, was out there, moved around pretty good. Um, I would say that Janelle’s ahead of Warren, but Warren’s got a shot. Mike kills out there watching our guys doing rehab, being all the walk throughs and things. But he’s not participating. Yeah. What’s your team play this weekend? Again, we don’t talk about it, so it’s not something that I share and talk about respectfully. Respect your question. Yeah. Seem like I always taking bullets on this, but on. On the going forward. You got the. The availability report start next week. So if a guy is suspended, you have to declare somebody’s in or out, right? By Wednesday. Will you? At that point? I think this past week, you might have told the ESPN that. I didn’t tell ESPN anything. Was. Was. I don’t understand. So don’t put words in my mouth, Jim. I didn’t say that. You said I might. Holly Mcgrath said that. You said I haven’t talked to anybody. Yeah, so I just wonder. I mean, not like anybody any more information than I give you, so I don’t I don’t tell them anything, but about the I. I found. I understand. The availability report when it was discussed, it was. There was a debate about whether you had to put that on there. I think you’re talking about a non injury reason to not be playing. Like a kids got death in the family, he’s not going to be at the game, he’s got to go to a funeral or he’s suspended. You have another category there that you have to to report that they’re not going to play. And there was a debate about that. I think it ended with you do have to put that. But there was disclosure to me in the several coaches in the SEC that were concerned about what the speculation will be if you put them in that category. What are you immediately gonna assume? That they’re what? That they’re suspended? And I don’t think that’s fair, you know what I mean? Because you could be an Assumption that this is wrong. But I think you do have to disclose that in there. I’m not 100% accurate on that. We haven’t had to worry about it cause we’re not to Kentucky week. And like I said, Ron’s gonna handle the entire injury part of that. Cause I don’t want anything to do with the injury part of that, but it following up on that, your. Your emphasis for not wanting to declare like it’s a suspension or whatever is it to Is it gamesmanship? Is it, like, you just. No, it’s not gamesmanship. All for me, it’s. It’s. It’s a kid. It’s a kid his family is respecting. When recruits come in, my parent and my. My. My. My room, they say, we respect the way you handle things. Because a kid takes enough drug to the MUD, headlines, everybody puts it out there, and then nobody knows if it’s wrong or it gets dropped or any of that. They never. They never get to do that. I want to defend the kid and it. To discuss it again and say it again. Then it’s another whole headline out there. So it’s not. It’s not gamesmanship in any way, shape, or form for me. It’s just. I don’t. I want that for the kid. I don’t want to have to go through that again. That’s why I don’t discuss it. Thank you, coach. You emphasize that you try to instill toughness in your players early on. Um, were you pleased with what you saw from your freshman in terms of toughness against Clemson? Uh, I don’t know. I didn’t see, I mean, a couple of freshmen go in and get in there, get knocked off the ball. I mean, so, no, I wasn’t real proud of that. But I had, you know, I had some guy. I don’t know that a freshman got the show toughness. There was not enough snaps. I mean, what freshman took the most snaps? KJ Bolden, He didn’t have a lot of. He didn’t have to show a lot of toughness. He wouldn’t up there in the trenches, and he had some nice tackles, he had some nice plays, but he didn’t have to show toughness. You know, Nate Fraser had some nice holes and made some nice cuts, but he didn’t have to show toughness. So now, respect your question, but I don’t know how to answer it because I don’t know that our freshman had to show up. Monroe was in there pretty early on Saturday. Just where has he grown the most since he arrived last year? He’s physically stronger, mentally in a better place, more confident in the system. We would put him in there and rotate him if we didn’t have a lot of confidence in him. So he’s gonna continue to get better. Tuesday. And you gotta be really smart. I’m not talking about me now. I’m talking about you gotta be really smart to not screw it up. Based on the analytics and all the things. A lot of people just say, I’m not worried about that. I’m just gonna play with my gut. But when you read all the analytics into it, it’s. It’s pretty deep because you have someone on staff that’s sole job is to pay attention to the communications or anything like that. Or is that. Yeah, we got three or four people on staff to do that, and I think it’s really critical that You got people covering your back. Any more questions, Coach? Smart. Thanks, coach. Alright, thank you.