Near the end of his regular game week Monday press conference, Georgia football coach Kirby Smart mentioned he had been on Zoom that morning with former Bulldog quarterback Matthew Stafford.
The Los Angeles Rams veteran mentioned to Smart the loss the day before to the Philadelphia Eagles when former Bulldog Jordan Davis blocked a field goal and returned it for a touchdown to seal a win.
It turned out the conversation was part of an interview Stafford and co-host Jim Gray did on their weekly show “Let’s Go!” on SiriusXM
“Some of those guys kind of ruined the game for us,” Stafford told Smart on Sept. 22 of former Georgia players on the Eagles.
Smart told Stafford and Gray he spoke to former Georgia defensive lineman Devonte Wyatt, now with Green Bay, over the weekend.
Smart was asked by Gray how he would do if he could field an NFL team of former Bulldogs.
“We’d have a pretty good one as long as Staff is still going to play quarterback,” Smart said. “I don’t know if we’ve got enough O-linemen to protect him. We’re getting close. We’ve got about six or seven guys.”
Also on the show, which is available on the SiriusXM app, Stafford recounted spending time this offseason in Athens where he worked out and threw passes to Zachariah Branch and others.
“That day showed me that he had really good natural hands,” Smart said. “He was plucking the ball in the air, running routes, quick. He loved it. He loved an opportunity to catch from you.”
Jim Gray told Smart he hadn’t beaten Alabama since 2017 (which was actually the national title game loss).
“We did beat them to win the national championship, Jim, so you’ve got to give me that one,” he said of the 2021 season.
He did say of the Crimson Tide which is 6-1 against him as coach, “They’ve had our number, they’ve had a lot of people’s number.”
Smart credited offensive coordinator Mike Bobo for the offense’s showing in a 44-41 overtime win at Tennessee: “Mike dialed them up and had a really good game plan. We probably left some points on the board in the red area and that can be killer. That brings games tighter than they should be. And then defensively, man, we did not play really well especially early. They got us after us.”
He said that the defense has worked on shoring up issues on the back end after giving up four touchdown passes against the Volunteers.
“We’ve played a bunch of balls in the air,” he said. “That’s what Alabama does well. …We’ve got to affect some timing, we’ve got to affect the quarterback, we’ve been working hard on that.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: What Matthew Stafford, Georgia coach Kirby Smart said on SiriusXM show
