Kirby Smart has familiarity with Cade Klubnik, Matt Luke

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Kirby Smart doesn’t have any of Clemson’s game film to study for this season, but he knows plenty about quarterback Cade Klubnik and offensive line coach Matt Luke.

The Tigers and Bulldogs start the season Saturday in Atlanta at high noon (ABC), and Smart was asked about Clemson and what he sees.

"You study the history of the coordinators and look at that hard. Dabo has an impact on the offense, so you look at what he's done through his time being there. The most recent you look at is last year's games,” Smart said. “Nobody is exactly what they were the year before, but you don't have any other options to study. You don't have game film of this year. This is the only game that we'll go into without game film of this year, so it all starts to change. But I'm sure everybody across the country is the same way. You have a new wrinkle, you have a new player that's an impact that you're trying to use in a certain way. What are you going to do different, what are you going to do the same? At the end of the day, coaches chase all those things. It boils down to who blocks the best, who tackles the best, who makes the least catastrophic mistakes, avoiding turnovers, and being explosive."

However, Smart said he’s seen enough of Klubnik to get an idea of how the Tigers will use the Texas native.

"It seems like he's been there forever. This is, I guess, his third year. He's a great, really good athlete. He's played a lot of football for a guy that age,” Smart said. “He has the ability to scramble, make plays on his feet, has some more weapons around him. I think he's a lot more comfortable now in their offense. You can see that throughout the year last year as you watched the season go on, how much more comfortable he got, especially when they started going to Phil (Mafah) a lot more as their featured back. They became a much more physical team. The addition of Matt Luke, he's a tremendous coach, he was here with us. I think that makes them even more versatile in some of the things he's going to bring to the table. Cade's been a great asset for them. I know he'll be very experienced."

Luke coached for Smart in Athens and won a National Championship. What does he expect out of Clemson’s offensive line?

"Toughness. He's got an extremely experienced offensive line. I want to say it's almost 100 starts,” Smart said of Luke and the offensive line. “Three of the five guys have over 25 or something. That's crazy. Very rare in college football to have a person with more than 25 starts because that means he stayed, or at least they're coming into their third season starting. They've got a tremendous offensive line in terms of the amount of experience they have starting. I would have thought ours was one of the most experienced offensive lines in the country, but theirs has got more starts than ours. I know Matt will do a tremendous job. They'll play with toughness, effort. I'm sure he'll add some wrinkles to their offense. He's a really good football coach."

He was then asked how familiar he is with Clemson’s roster.

"I don't know if I have a better identity. I guess, compared to what? To other teams we play? When you play more teams in your conference, and you see them more in overlap film,” Smart said. “A lot of times you can see defensive players in the SEC multiple times in your breakdown. Clemson, you won't see in your breakdown very often. We do know a lot of their players, but it's offense and defense both in terms of that. There are a lot more Georgia flavor to their defense. Some of that may be the area their coaches on defense recruit. I know they've got a former high school coach in Georgia on their defensive staff. A lot of good defensive players from our state on their defense."

On Clemson’s defensive front

"You look at it on paper and they say they've only got a certain number of defensive starters returning but two of their best players and statistically strong players are back, and they were freshmen who technically didn't start. Those two guys, (TJ) Parker and Peter Woods, they were both really good players. We knew those guys in recruiting, and they're tremendous athletes with experienced guys coming back. When you look across the defensive front, Clemson is never going to be short there. They've got twitchy, fast, hard playing guys. The linebacker crew is extremely instinctive and well coached. You can see they carry over from when Brent left. They don't miss things in terms of keys and recognition and they play really hard on defense."

On Barrett Carter

“First of all he's a tremendous kid. A high academic kid who went to high school at North Gwinnett, a fun kid to recruit because he had a great personality. He enjoyed recruiting, was up front and honest, didn't get too enamored in the process. He handled it the right way and made the choice he thought was best for him. He's become a really good, dominant player, and you can see on tape his instincts and athleticism. He's a playmaker, and they've got a good one in Barrett."

On Phil Mafah

"Physicality. He's got a down hill way about him. He's one of those guys that was that way in high school. The more carries he gets the harder he is to tackle. I think he enjoys it more the more he gets it. They hung their hat on him there late in the season, and he was really physical. I think with that offensive line, tying the experience they have and the size they have to him, it makes any offense better when you can run the ball."

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