Georgia’s first SEC test of the season brings a little extra chatter with it, but Kirby Smart isn’t biting.
As the Bulldogs get ready to open league play on the road against Arkansas this Saturday, Smart was asked Monday about Ryan Silverfield’s old comments that took a shot at Georgia’s well-known string of speeding arrests. Silverfield made the remark last September while he was still at Memphis, and it resurfaced again with his first matchup against Georgia now here.
Smart’s response was blunt and calm at the same time. He called it “much ado about nothing.”
“Yeah, that’s much ado about nothing,” Smart said. “I mean, he chose to talk about what he wanted to talk about.
He apologized about it. He wasn’t really; I think he was talking about generalities.
All coaches, we show things other schools do to make mistakes, to try to educate our team. He’s trying to educate his team, and it’s everything he said, but that’s over and done with for me.”
The Bulldogs have already handled their first two opponents, and now the focus shifts to an Arkansas team that comes in at 0-2 in Silverfield’s first season in charge. He took over after Sam Pittman was fired, and the opener against Georgia adds another layer to the early part of his tenure.
Silverfield’s old quote is the one that sparked the conversation in the first place. Speaking last year, he said, “Generally, on a Sunday afternoon when we meet with the team, we do 2 things,” Silverfield said last year.
“We always start with ‘not our standard.’ We always start with a negative.
And the ‘not our standard’ is, ‘Georgia wide receiver arrested for driving 900 miles per hour over the speed limit.’ Right?
That’s a weekly occurrence.”
He also revisited the issue publicly at SEC Media Days in July, where he said he meant no disrespect toward Smart and added that he had great respect for the 2-time national champion.
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Ryan Puglisi was among the biggest beneficiaries, with his performance strongly suggesting he has moved to the front in the race for the backup job. Tyriq Green also flashed enough to look like a return option worth watching, while Georgia got mixed results from Ryan Montgomery and Lawson Luckie. For a team still sorting out depth in spots, that kind of clarity is part of what made Saturday matter beyond the final score. [Read more 🡒]