Kirby Smart heaps praise on Oregon's linebacker group ahead of matchup
Kirby Smart knows Mario Cristobal well, and he obviously knows Dan Lanning well, so the Georgia head coach feels like he has a pretty good idea of what kind of team the Ducks will bring to Atlanta on Saturday to battle his Bulldogs.
“We know we got a really good program (coming),” he said earlier this week. “Mario Cristobal is a good friend of mine and he’s done a great job recruiting players to Oregon, and Dan has taken those guys, and watching what they did in the spring game, and knowing the intensity and the organization and the leadership that Dan has, they’re going to be a hell of a team. They’ve got a lot of good football players on their team.”
Maybe no more so than at linebacker, where the Ducks appear to have one of the deepest groups in college football this season. Noah Sewell and Justin Flowe, both former 5-star recruits, are as talented as any inside pairing in the country. The athleticism within the group is what stands out.
“They have a tremendously talented inside linebacker room,” Smart said. “Both two kids we recruited here and tried to get here, and we had some pretty good inside linebackers when they decided to come. We felt strongly enough they were good enough to come here and play, so they’re talented.”
Sewell and Flowe, along with converted safety Jeffrey Bassa, will look to try and slow down the Georgia offense. Smart was asked about those guys in particular matching up with UGA’s talented trio of tight ends and said he doesn’t expect to see inside ‘backers in coverage on those guys.
“It could be a matchup where when one is blocking one of them, one might be covering them, but might be a DB too,” he said. “Are they going to play nickel, play regular? Those are all questions that will be answered the day of the game.”
It’s getting closer. The 11th-ranked Ducks and third-ranked Bulldogs face off at 12:30 p.m. PT on ABC.