Kirby Smart shares area where his young Georgia football team is ‘not afraid’

ATHENS — Kirby Smart is admittedly worried about his Georgia team.

It’s young, younger than it has been in recent seasons because more of the players impacted by the extra season of eligibility because of COVID-19 have cycled out of college football.

Smart knows he isn’t alone in those worries, as it is emblematic of where the sport has moved. Throw in the transfer portal and the resulting roster churn, Smart does not have the same sense of familiarity that he might have with a more veteran team.

But Smart knows there is no crying from the yacht, as he told reporters earlier this summer. And given how much of the 2024 season was a slog, the Georgia coach is embracing the challenge of getting this group of Bulldogs ready.

“It’s like the puzzle of this team is different than the puzzle of last year,” Smart said at his news conference Thursday. “And being able to decipher the difference in the two teams and maybe what the wants and needs are from me. What does this team need from me? What does this staff need from me? Where can I be at my best for our team? That’s my why.”

This is Smart’s 10th season at Georgia. He’s won multiple SEC and national championships in that span, pushing the Georgia program to the top of the sport.

But the ground beneath Smart has shifted in recent seasons, creating new challenges for him to tackle.

This year, it’s the youth of his team. The Georgia coach brings up that 54% of his team is either in their first or second year of college, almost as much as the team’s mantra for the 2025 season.

The phrase “fire, passion and energy” taps into the younger aspect of this team. You don’t need SEC experience to play with those three characteristics.

The veterans on this Georgia team, the few that there are, have taken well to that phrase. With so many unproven Bulldogs eager for a chance to make an impact, it has had a noticeable impact on how this team has come together.

“Once you’re here as a freshman, I mean, you’re demanded the same standard as everyone else,” senior tight end Oscar Delp said. “And it can be hard at first once you get here, but I think the biggest thing was just confidence and gaining that confidence.”

Freshman safety Rasean Dinkins quickly learned about the Georgia standard. Last Thursday was his first practice in a Georgia uniform. Yet it did not take long for Smart to get on his microphone and call out the Georgia freshman for not meeting the Georgia standard.

That Smart felt comfortable enough to yell at Dinkins in what was his first practice is probably a good thing long-term for the Warner Robins native. The list of great defensive backs from Georgia grows every year, and first-round draft picks like Lewis Cine and Malaki Starks received a similar treatment in their first days in Athens.

“Mindset. It’s the only thing they can work on,” Smart said. “Because they’re going to be overwhelmed by the speed, the tempo of practice. Can I fail, and can I pick up and go again? And it’s been seen over and over again.”

Camp will get harder for Georgia as we get deeper into the month of August. The Bulldogs put pads on for the first time Saturday. It was the third of their 15 preseason practices ahead of what should be a difficult 2025 schedule.

Smart does believe this is the healthiest Georgia has been entering August in at least the previous five years. Having a full cast of characters makes it easier to accomplish everything that Smart wants to in this grueling and physical month.

Especially in a day and age where two-a-days are long gone and there are fewer padded practices in general.

“We’re going to play in the heat,” Smart said. “We don’t run from the heat. Our practices are really tough in terms of volume and intensity because we get a lot of reps in a short amount of time.”

We won’t have to wait long to see how this Georgia team has come together. In September, Georgia plays back-to-back games against Tennessee and Alabama, with a bye week in between. The former comes on the road, which figures to be a hostile environment, even though Georgia has dominated Tennessee under Smart. He has won his four games in Neyland Stadium by a score of 163-41.

Getting this team ready is a new challenge for Smart, made all the more difficult by the looming and uncertain changes stemming from the House v. NCAA settlement.

Since Georgia’s last game of the 2024 season, Smart seems to like how the players have come together. When speaking to reporters, there seems to be a genuine enthusiasm that isn’t always present when Smart stands behind a podium.