Kirby Smart, Bulldogs working to improve during off week

The Georgia football team doesn’t have a game this weekend. But that doesn’t mean the players get a week off, even after a hard-fought win over Notre Dame. There remains plenty of work to be done if the No. 3-ranked Bulldogs are going to reach the College Football Playoffs.

The staff has already spoken to every player and offered constructive criticism on how to improve going forward. They began working on those issues during the off week.

“We give every player on the team three or four notes of what they have to get better at,” UGA head coach Kirby Smart said. “Every coach is assigned their players to say, ‘Here are your target areas you have to improve on.’

“It might be special teams for one guy. It might be routes. It might be blocking. But it’s very specific. We want them to have a purpose in practice this week. If you’re not careful, they’ll just tread water. We want to get better and we have to have target areas and get better.”

Smart gave three overall goals to the offense, three goals for the defense and three goals for the special teams.

“We have to improve,” he said.

Smart said the team showed good energy when it practiced on Tuesday. Each of the first three units got work, with the second group getting some additional reps in an effort to build depth.

“We are trying to develop some more depth to get some good-on-good,” Smart said. “We picked out some things we need to work on, some areas of concern, and some areas we need to improve and tried to work on those during specific situation football. Then we did a lot of fundamental work.”

Smart said the team will ramp up with additional physical work on Thursday.

The Bulldogs continue to get excellent performances from quarterback Jake Fromm, who has completed 75.6 percent of his passes for 788 yards and six touchdowns. D’Andre Swift leads the team with 390 yards rushing, with Brian Herrien at 163 yards. Zamir White has gained 141 yards, but didn’t touch the ball against Notre Dame.

“With the flow of the game, we didn’t get many opportunities to get (White) in,” Smart said. “When No. 7 (Swift) is running the ball like he’s running the ball, it’s hard to get the ball to anybody else. The guy was making people miss, running possessed. Brian Herrien was running hard. We want to get Zamir involved and we need to do that. He’s growing up and he’s getting better.”

Injury update

Defensive back Eric Stokes, defensive back Tyson Campbell, guard Solomon Kindley and defensive end David Marshall continue to work through injuries.

Stokes was unable to practice on Tuesday, but was able to jog and should be OK for next week’s game against Tennessee. Campbell has been working out and training, but was unable to practice Tuesday. Kindley did not practice Tuesday and is listed as day-to-day. Marshall has played through a foot injury and competed against Notre Dame, despite the issue.