When Kirby Smart and the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs come to Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday afternoon, it’ll be the Bulldogs first road trip of the 2023 season. Georgia’s four wins over UT-Martin, Ball State, South Carolina and UAB have all come within the walls of Sanford Stadium in Athens.

And though Smart wouldn’t single out Jordan-Hare Stadium as one of the tougher environments he and his guys will have to play in this season, he knows it’ll present a challenge.

Here’s everything Smart said during his Monday afternoon press conference ahead of Georgia’s westward trek to Auburn for this year’s edition of The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry:

Opening statement: “Road SEC tests are always difficult. There’s no way around it. I think any conference, when you go on the road in it, it’s always a test. A test of focus, patience, endurance, composure – all the qualities you need to be a good team. So we get our first one going to Auburn. Got a lot of respect for Hugh and the job he’s done. Everywhere he’s been, he’s been successful. He’s very bright. He does a great job with his team and they’re playing really, really hard right now. Got a lot of guys in – transfers in – that have added to their depth. They’re doing a really good job, playing extremely hard. I know the environment we’re going into will be extremely tough.”

On what he’s seen out of quarterback Carson Beck heading into his first SEC start on the road: “I think that’s something we’re going to find out. I don’t think you know. He’s been through some ups and downs. He’s certainly been against some good defenses like Auburn has. He goes against our guys. It’s different when it’s live, so you gotta find out how he responds to that. I’m very confident in Carson’s ability to communicate, to understand things… he’s been in our system. You only get good at these situational football things by playing football for a long time. And he’s been with us for a while doing it and this is his first chance to do it on the road.”

On Auburn’s two-quarterback approach: “They’re both really good athletes. I don’t think people give Payton Thorne enough credit for his athleticism and quickness. Now obviously when you’re talking about Robby, you’re talking about a different kind of athlete. This guy is as fast as anybody we’ve ever played against with size and a strong arm. They do a good job of using, No. 1, their backs run extremely hard and extremely physical and are tough and are hard to tackle. Then you combine that with a quarterback run and it creates a lot of eye candy, a lot of misdirection. They do a really good job and Hugh has always done a really good job of that.”

How similar is Hugh Freeze’s offense at Auburn to that of when he was at Ole Miss? “I think that people evolve. They’ve evolved. They’ve evolved in protection, they’ve evolved in route structure… He’s not the same staff he had. Now Hugh doesn’t do everything, so he’s got a staff that he puts in charge of doing thing and they’ve gone out and added some wrinkles. There are qualities and traits of his DNA, his offense from years ago that are still a part of this, but there are things that have been added, just like defensively we’ve added things throughout the years, too.”

The advantage of having a QB like Robby Ashford to run a package in the red zone: “Yeah, extending plays. It’s an extra element in the red zone. Every defense has an extra hat because no one has to back up and play deep anymore, so it becomes really tough to get the ball in the red area in our league. And Robby gives you that dimension. I mean, he is elite at the plays they do with him down there. They’re really hard to defend because there’s so many options to it. They got good runners, they got good people to block and then you add him to it and the fact that he can throw, it makes for a difficult situation down there. They do a good job with his package.”

On what stands out to him about Auburn’s running backs: “The difference in the guys. I mean, they’ve got one of the hardest guys to tackle in the SEC and he runs really hard and he’s physical. They’ve got fast backs, elusive backs, down-hill backs… I mean, they do a good job. It’s like by committee and they’ve got several guys that have done really well.”

What makes different road environments unique to themselves, specifically Jordan-Hare? “I think they’re more similar than unique. I would have a hard time pinpointing differences other than they’re all loud as hell in our conference. They do a great job. We went to Missouri last year and I thought it was as loud as anything at night. The environment was really loud and it’s not even an enclosed stadium. And this stadium is enclosed and it’s similar to ours. People have always said there’s a similarity in the look of theirs and ours, but it’s extremely loud. I don’t know how to differentiate one school to another because they’re just loud. The fans are passionate. It’s a similar environment.”

On Ron Roberts, Auburn’s defense and its ability to mix up pressures: “You don’t necessarily know where it’s coming from. That’s what good defenses do. When you don’t know, you’ve got assignments, right? I’ve got my guy, I got this guy and if we don’t got that guy then the quarterback better know it and everybody else needs to know that too. There’s only so many you can bring and there’s lots of them you can drop. We like to think we do a lot to our quarterback all season and things like that year ‘round here with our defense, but it’s much tougher when you go against someone maybe you didn’t traditionally play against. (Ron Roberts) does a tremendous job of exactly what you’re talking about. It’s important to know your rules and know what your strengths are and know what your weaknesses are.”