ATHENS — Georgia football has put the game against Texas in the rearview mirror but that game will have a lasting impact for the Bulldogs.

Because of targeting ejections for Dan Jackson and Joenel Aguero, the Bulldogs will be without the two defensive backs for the first half against Florida.

Smart spoke about those targeting calls, as well as the appeals process during his Tuesday press conference.

Below is a full transcript of what Smart said, in addition to comments on the Georgia offense and off-week plans.

“Yep, we had a good practice today on ourselves and try to fix the target areas that we think we can get better at in terms of offense, defense, and special teams. We did some quality control work and then worked on some future opponents. And then we’ll take a day tomorrow and do a lot of the same. Ramp it up a little bit tomorrow and then get to work on Florida on Thursday.”

On the feedback he got from the SEC on the targeting calls and what a defender is supposed to do when the ball carrier ducks his head…

“Yeah, not duck his head. I mean, that’s what the defender’s supposed to do. I mean, if that’s my son out there and he’s got the ball and he’s running the ball, I don’t want him ducking his head with the ball like their offensive player did. I certainly don’t want our defensive players ducking their head or the crown of their helmet being used. It’s very dangerous.

I can’t get into the commentary, but both of those were really close, unfortunate, borderline situations because one came from an offensive player lowering his head and then Dan mirrored it. And then Joenel’s was really tough because he’s trying to avoid helmet-to-helmet. He’s trying to avoid going high, which most NFL offensive players would rather you hit them high than hit them low because their legs are their career. They’re tough calls in both situations, but everybody’s trying to work on the safety of the game. I mean, that’s the focal point.”

“Yeah, I mean, we’ve been a work in progress. I don’t know if I can say how young we are, but we are new. We’re relatively new. We’ve got three guys that are starting in the NFL. Anytime you have three guys that are starting in the NFL, that probably means they played for you at least two years, and those guys all did. There’s a lot of growing up that’s had to be done back there, and they continue to work to get better.

All you can ask your kids to do is work, compete, be competitive, be tough. And they do that, and I’m pleased with how hard they work and compete. We haven’t made some plays on the ball that I think could have rewarded us or maybe when offenses make mistakes we don’t capitalize on that mistake a la a dropped pick. That was my reference last week — mean, after the game. I think some people took it to be about the offense, but my comments were about the number of dropped picks we had in one game. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that. That’s where you have to hurt teams. You have to turn those into turnovers, and when you don’t they’re just incompletions. We’ve got to play the ball down the field better.”

“Yeah, we’re hoping to get Smael back.

“Well, KJ’s played all year. He’s rotated and played a significant amount of football. So we look at KJ as a starter, and he’ll be prepared to play. And Ja’Corey started and played against Clemson the whole game. So we’ve got other guys that are capable of other packages and things we can play. And we’ll have to rely on that to prepare.

But again, we’re not really worried about that right now. We’re worried about how do we block better, tackle better, cover better. So many things we can get better at, including those guys. Including the guys that may or may not be out, they’ve got to get better.”

On the Peyton Woodring kick…

“We were not trying to do what we did. We know about the Oregon play. That’s usually a tactic you use after a 15-yard penalty, in which the ball would be kicked off from the 50, therefore recovered on the 35, maybe 37, but that’s not what we’re trying to do at all. And it was a failed attempt of something that we worked on, but it was not what we were trying to do. So it’s not worth elaborating on because we may play them again. So I don’t really want to explain it.

On which position group has gotten better since the last bye week…

“I think everyone’s grown. I mean, the experiences we’ve had since the last bye week have been on the road at Alabama, home games against two tough SEC opponents, on the road at Texas. I mean, it’s been a journey. And the next journey, I think, is five game stretch, if I’m not mistaken, and it’ll be a hell of a journey too, because every week is a season right now. And I’m proud of the guys working. I can’t single anybody out. I think a lot of guys have shown improvement.

Our outside of linebacker group we’ve got the production out of Damon, Gabe, and Jalon when he plays that spot. Chaz had some big plays in the game.

I thought those guys had really stuck out. But it’s hard to single out one group.

On the fourth-quarter drive to score against Texas…

“Yeah, that was special. I told them after the game, the one thing that this offense has shown, and outside of at times being inconsistent, it’s some unbelievable resilience. When you think about the games we’ve been in, that we had to respond to a score. It seems like every time the second half somebody scores, they respond. I feel like that happened in Auburn, I feel like that happened in Mississippi State. I know it happened in Alabama, because it was the entire second half. So they show great resilience, and that is a quality, although there are higher ranking qualities possibly, that is a very high-ranking quality that not all teams have. And I don’t like the back against the wall mentality that you come out fighting, because I don’t like to play with my back against the wall. I want to start aggressively and attack. But there’s times where you lose momentum, and you have to respond to that. And they have been very good at that.”

On if the guys who got ejected will be available for Florida and how the appeal process works…

“I’ll be honest with you, I’d rather not talk about it. So I mean, it’s one of those things that I don’t really know the process, to be honest with you. So, we’ll see how it goes.”

 Can’t wait to get him back. Hopefully it’ll be soon. He’s out there with us right now, and I don’t know when it’ll be.”