Georgia has only lost two games in the last three years, but Kirby Smart must find fresh ways to push his team heading into the 2024 season.Georgia football fall camp will conclude on Saturday with intra-squad scrimmage No. 2, which will be the Bulldogs’ final practice. With classes commencing for the student-athletes, the practice schedule will be constricted, effectively ending training camp, and the players will be under pressure to perform on Saturday because Kirby Smart was dissatisfied with scrimmage No. 1.
“Progress has been good,” Smart said at a midweek press conference. “I wouldn’t say that the first scrimmage met the standard or expectations. We didn’t have much enthusiasm and didn’t play to the
level that I believe we should play at.” Smart went on to compliment his players’ work and discipline during fall camp, but his deliberate jab at their effort ahead of the final scrimmage was not the first one he’s taken at his squad in the media this season.
“We are nowhere near where we need to be; I believe we have less depth than we’ve ever had, and that’s kind of a common theme when talking to other coaches,” Smart said in the same opening remark of his press conference. “I call it the degeneration of football because every year we’ve been here, I feel like we’ve got more guys capable of going in and playing winning football, and I believe I feel like that decreases with each passing year.” He concluded his remarks with a message not only to the media, who recently ranked his team No. 1 in the preseason AP Poll, but also to his players, who are undoubtedly riding high on that achievement. “We’ve got to keep working to increase that number.” Smart would not inform the media that his team lacks depth without a cause. If there was genuine worry, he was unlikely to divulge the flaws in his armour to the rest of the SEC. No, this lecture was for his players, the ones who aren’t yet “capable of going in and playing winning football,” because to negotiate the gauntlet of a schedule laid out before his team, Smart will need more than merely.
Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback. Carson Beck is likely the top returning quarterback in the country, having accumulated 3,941 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, and only six interceptions last season. Last season, he racked up those stats passing to Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey while they were healthy, but now only one of his top five receivers from last season is back in Athens, so Smart chose to push the new bunch of pass catchers, as well as Beck.
“There isn’t as much depth around Carson in the skill positions as there was in the past. It probably puts additional pressure on him. “He probably feels like he has to be perfect,” Smart later explained.
Despite Smart’s concerns about the “deterioration of football,” Georgia still has one of the top three rosters in the nation. Even without Bowers and McConkey, Beck has Oscar Delp, Benjamin Yurosek, Colbie Young, London Humphreys, Dillon Bell, and Dominic Lovett to throw at. That’s not including Trevor Etienne in the backfield. If that bunch steps up, as they almost probably will, Beck does not need to be flawless; he simply needs to be excellent, and the Bulldogs will win their third national championship in four years.
Smart believes his team is one of the greatest; he’s merely sending a message because it’s difficult not to get carried away after going 42-2 in the previous three seasons. If the rest of the college football world fails to shame the Bulldogs, Kirby will do it himself.
Leave a Reply