Freeze: As of today, Liggins and Jones are available for Georgia
On the practice week: “We’ve had two solid days of work. It’s not a lot of emotion, which I’m OK with, I think. We’ll see Saturday. We’ve gotten really good work in. I think we’ve improved some areas, hopefully with more discipline of eyes and having more discipline and doing your job on a certain task and not trying to do somebody else’s. That’s a big emphasis for us, has been for the last couple of weeks. We got better in some areas last week and didn’t get quite there in some. It’s been another good week of work.”
On improvements in run fits: “I’m pleased. It’s hard to simulate exactly what we’re going to face Saturday with the backs and o-line they have. But pretty pleased. We’ve got to get in tonight and tomorrow and cut it back ever more, probably, to find out what we like and what our kids feel really good about fitting. They present a lot of issues with all of their tight ends and their shifts and their motions and their formations. You’ve got to make sure you’ve got a plan that’s simple enough to adjust to all that.”
On Victor Evans: “He’s been full-go. He’s good to go.”
On if he’s happy the September slate is about to be over: “Nah, man. You want to get into this thing. You wish they weren’t all together in a row, but, man, it’s very enjoyable for me, the way I view things, to compete against the best. It’s disappointing and hurts and stings and all those things when it doesn’t go your way, particularly when you feel like you had a good enough team to win on that given day. You can’t worry about the last one. You’ve got to get excited about the next opportunity, and we’ve got a great one.”
On Derrick Jones and Jeremy Liggins: “As of today, they are (available for Georgia). But they have to do what we’ve set forth every single day to be ready to go. (Derrick) would be a corner. Looks good. He’s really athletic, long. He doesn’t know everything as well as you would like, for obvious reasons. But he’s athletic.”
On what Liggins offers: “He gives more depth along the offensive line, gives us the ability to move Rod around some, too, to rest those guards a little bit more. They’ve played a lot of snaps in the first few games.”
On the Georgia RBs: “They have different things that they’re more skilled at. I think they’ll do everything with both. But they’re definitely a little different in some ways, too.”
On corrections in special teams units: “We evaluate them every week. I think the scheme is good; you’ve got to execute it. It’s hard. The kickoff return unit, we haven’t been very good in that unit at stopping the initial charge of some of these athletic teams that we play. The punt unit’s been really good except for one punt and the punt was in the wrong place. If you watch the film, we’ve got our two guys outside the hash where the ball should have been, ready to do their job. It takes all 11 on every given play to win big plays and not have quick-turnaround scores on the other team. That was one where we didn’t all quite get it done on that play.”
On alternating between Gary Wunderlich and Will Gleeson: “I’m not going to tell you why. We’ve got a little strategy to it.”
On Van Jefferson: “I think he’s been really confident all fall camp, spring practice. After he got over the initial disappointment of redshirting … kids get so built up in the recruiting process by all of us, media and coaches. But redshirting is really a good thing for a lot of kids. He’ll be the first to tell you he’s glad he did. He’s bigger, he’s stronger and he’s been really confident ever since spring practice when he knew, ‘Man, I’m going to be in the mix for playing time.’”
On how Jacob Eason differs from Jalen Hurts and Deondre Francois: “You hesitate to say because you don’t know. He may light us up, too. It feels like a different quarterback. He’s gifted. Big arm, good vision and seems to be really poised. But doesn’t seem to be like the two that really hurt us.”