Kirby Smart fires back at Steve Smith

Steve Smith, the former NFL wide receiver and now turned YouTube draft analyst, made waves with his comments on Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton.

The former Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens receiver called Stockton “awful” and “dog doo-doo,” in a viral rant. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was asked about those comments during a sitdown with 680TheFan on Tuesday.

“Do your homework. Do a little more homework,” Smart said. “I think if you look at small sections of it, there’s things he can do better. You look at the total body of work he has, it’s been really good. I think it’s only going to get better with experience. I don’t really know Steve Smith personally, I got nothing to respond to him. I don’t really worry about what he says.”

Smart reiterated that his concerns are not with Smith’s opinion. Rather, he is concerned with whether or not Georgia wins football games and what they produce at the position.

Not ‘Awful’

Smith made his comments when doing a film breakdown of Georgia receiver Dillon Bell, which is where Smith then took the time to give his take on Stockton.

“Because the way I watched him play quarterback- hell, I’m irritated just watching him. Goodness gracious,” Smith said. “The quarterback playing for the Georgia Bulldogs, awful. Dog doo-doo. As a wide receiver, I’m going on strike. I’m not working or running another route, until I get a better quarterback.”

Suffice it to say, Smart did not agree with Smith’s assertions. In fact, Smart called Smith’s motivations into question.

“That’s just his job, right? He needs clickbait,” Smart said. “He needs links. He needs likes. He needs all those things. How do you get it? You make comments like that about players and guys in the draft. That’s his job. Much respect. You got your opinion. You got to form your opinions, but we’ll have ours within this building. We have conviction about Gunner.”

Smart also noted Georgia’s success with wideouts in the NFL draft.

“When I look at the stats, I say, who has the most wide receivers drafted in the last seven drafts? There’s only one team in the country that has more wide receivers drafted than us over seven years,” Smart said. “That’s a pretty good stat. When you throw in tight ends, pass catchers, we’re first over seven years.”

Smart didn’t stop there.

“When you look at passing in the SEC over five years, and I think you can only look across your conference, we’re top two passing over five years in our conference,” Smart said. “There’s multiple quarterbacks in that. That’s a Stetson [Bennett], Carson [Beck], Gunner era, but when you’re top two in something in the SEC, that’s pretty good.”

After sitting for three years, last season was Stockton’s first full season as the full-time starter. He led the Bulldogs to a 12-2 season, which ended with a second-straight SEC Championship and top-four seed in the College Football Playoff.

Stockton finished with 2,894 yards and 24 touchdowns passing with five interceptions while completing 69.7 percent of his passes. The Tiger, Georgia, native also rushed for another 462 yards and 10 touchdowns, which helped him finish No. 7 in the Heisman vote.