This is one of the downsides to being dynastic. People like winning and often want to be associated with it. However, winning at each subsequent level is more difficult than the previous one. Just because you were a great football player in high school does not mean anything when it comes to competing in the Power Four at a place like Georgia. Kirby Smart is the standard bearer for this team.
With spring practice underway, Smart made it a point to say that Georgia's relatively youthful roster is not exactly loving being coached hard. This is alarming because that had been par for the course for his first decade in charge of his alma mater. After all, he is the greatest branch stemming off the Nick Saban coaching tree, only two generations removed from another all-time head coach in Don James.
Smart put it bluntly that some of his UGA players are "offended" when you have to coach them hard.
“We have a lot of guys that put their hands up, they’re offended when you coach them. We’ve had multiple NFL coaches come through here, go to practice, and they talk about how their players love to be coached, they love to be given a nugget, a technique that might help them play longer. Some of our guys are offended by it.”
Smart continued by essentially mocking players who are not living up to the standards at Georgia.
"'You’re coaching me hard? You’re telling me I’ve got to play with effort?’ Some of them, I guess, have never been held to that standard. That standard’s not going to change here.”
To finish up his point, he said it is his obligation to coach players hard, well, because he is a coach...
“We have to coach it. That’s what they pay us to do. Coach them. They have to be willing to receive coaching, and on the whole, my whole preach after practice was, we got a lot of guys that put their hands up. They’re offended when you coach them. I’m not talking about the freshman, I’m talking about in general.”
Georgia won the SEC last season and made the College Football Playoff, but still lost to Notre Dame...
Kirby Smart is left with no choice but to motivate his Georgia Bulldogs
This is the best coach in college football today. Smart is a sound defensive mind and an excellent recruiter, who often puts his coaches and players in advantageous positions to succeed by empowering them. Other great coaches can do all those things, but what sets Smart apart is his relentless fire and competitiveness as a halftime adjuster. He knows how to get his team fired up!
Smart famously used one person's opinion that the 2022 team was going to go 7-5 en route to a 15-0 national championship-winning season. Georgia had one of the toughest schedules in the country last season, but this was not the same UGA team from yesteryear. Not only did they lose to their bitter rival Alabama again, but they also lost on the road to Ole Miss and to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
Injuries wreaked havoc on this bunch, but I never felt that the 2024 Georgia team was fully locked in mentally. Once Carson Beck's elbow snapped and his UGA career ended in the SEC Championship, that team had to crawl to the finish line. His backup Gunner Stockton was not ready for the moment and the bigger stage to come. Frankly, I think much of the team was not ready to run the table again.
What I am getting at is if Smart cannot motivate his players, then I do not think anyone can. If you are unable to play hard and be coached hard by the very best at what he does, then may you do not deserve that luxury or opportunity. Only three active college football head coaches have won the College Football Playoff before. Smart has done it twice. He has more championships to win at UGA.
This is the first season since COVID I am not going to pick my alma mater to win the national title.