Kirby Smart addresses Auburn loss in 1-on1

Here with Georgia Chambers from Fox 5 Sports as we round the top of the hour, Georgia. Not great news for the Bulldogs. Kind of a humiliating loss, and I was just checking out some stats. Auburn, first unranked team to upset the number one team on the road since 2007. Georgia now 6-1, first time since 1990 that the number one team in the country has lost to an unranked team. How's Kirby Smart explaining all this? Coach Smart said coming into the week that humility is a week away. He loved to remind media members that even when they were 6-0 on the season, while humility came over the weekend when Auburn came in as an unranked opponent, as you said, and beat Georgia, but it depends on who you ask, right? Because after the game, one of the players said they could take this as a positive. They got some of that humility. It's all about how you respond. Today I had a chance to talk to Coach Smart about just that, and this is what he had to say. I'm also lucky you said that they might look back and be grateful for the Auburn loss. How much does that loss help shape a team's identity? Well, it depends on how the team responds to it. I think if you handle it the right way, it can shape identity. If you improve and maybe highlight some areas that you need to improve in, it's important to grow. I don't think you have to grow through a loss, but I certainly think you can. And sometimes it takes that to get young men's attention. what do you define as a successful bye week I would say improvement in the areas targeted okay now target area is recovery so we got to improve in recovery we got to improve in tackling we're going to improve in conditioning and recovery and conditioning are can contradict each other sometimes but not in this case we're recovering from some of the physicality but we still need conditioning to be the best condition team out there and we'll work hard at both those Tom, this is a Georgia team that's pretty beat up right now. You saw running back Nate Frazier come back on Saturday, but he's still not 100%. You had other players out as well. The timing of this bye, it's needed. Yeah, it's great. Hopefully they can get some more players healthy because Georgia-Florida is a couple weeks away, and they're hoping to bounce back from this loss against Auburn. Obviously, Kirby upset with the loss, but he seems to be taking it in stride, instructing the team that we're going to learn lessons from what happened rather than sit there and shake our heads and consternate over it. Well, and especially when you have other SEC teams, there's no undefeated SEC team right now. So that just shows you the type of teams that Georgia is playing against. But also, they're still number five, okay? So a cup half full. Yes, they're no longer the top team in the country, but they're still number five. They have a long road ahead. They can take it. They can learn from it. And hopefully they don't have to feel this feeling of defeat again. How did Auburn flex against Georgia? I heard it was sort of in the back half of the game when things started sort of coming apart for the Bulldogs. I think for Auburn, it really boiled down to their quarterback, Byron Brown. He utilized his legs, and Georgia had difficulty stopping him. He was able to push the ball down the field and put Auburn in a lot of good positions, and Georgia's defense fell flat. And it's interesting because the week before they played Alabama, another dual-threat quarterback, and they were able to contain him a little bit more. So last week, again, like I said, they fall flat against Auburn, but I think they needed this to teach them a little bit of that humility, and it's all about how you respond. The players said they partook in the 24-hour rule. They felt the pain of the loss, but they've already put it behind them. It's them versus them this week since it is a bye, but they're going to be ready for Florida come two weeks. Yeah, so that's kind of what's next here for the Bulldogs. They're going to take this by, hunker down, run through some practices. This Florida game is going to be huge, though. Well, especially, it's not in Jacksonville anymore. They've moved it. It's Halloween night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. So this is one that, for fans, has been circled on the calendar. And especially, I can tell you, Tom, players now have it circled on the calendar as well because they'll be coming off a loss. That's going to be a giant game. Of course, we'll be all over it here. Oh, for sure. Georgia Chambers, Georgia, thanks so much. And thank you for joining us here for the 3 p.m. streaming hour.