Kirby Smart sparks sense of urgency in Georgia’s Sugar Bowl preparation

ATHENS — The Georgia football sense of urgency is unmistakable, and it starts at the top.

Kirby Smart exemplified that at his Monday news conference, when wires got crossed during the Zoom question portion of his presentation, leading to a piped-in TV report of Santa being spotted cycling in Italy.

Smart was not amused by the interruption, asking the moderator, “Does that count toward the 15 minutes” of question and answer time required of head coaches leading up to the College Football Playoff.

The Bulldogs (12-1) play Ole Miss (12-1) at 8 p.m. Jan. 1 in the CFP Sugar Bowl quarterfinal in New Orleans, and Smart is 4-0 in games that are in-season rematches, but he pointed out that much about both teams has changed, and a new game plan is in the works.

“I’m excited about where our team is, (and) I’m excited that they’re practicing the way they are and are excited about the opponent because they have so much respect for the team,” Smart said of the Rebels, who held a double-digit lead over UGA before the Bulldogs rallied for a 43-35 win in Athens on Oct. 18.

“The negative is when you’re playing good football, a lot of times you want to keep playing, you want to stay in rhythm, you want to stay in a weekly schedule,” Smart said of getting Georgia dialed in again. “That schedule gets thrown off by the break. You do the best you can with the calendar you have and try to talk to other people and find out what the best way to do things is.”

Smart said the Bulldogs’ preparation this year is similar to what it was last year leading into their Sugar Bowl quarterfinal game against Notre Dame, which Georgia lost 23-10 to the eventual CFP runner-up.

“As far as changes, going to New Orleans, there hasn’t been a tremendous amount of change,” Smart said.

“We don’t think we did anything wrong in the prep last year. We didn’t necessarily play a great game, but we also played a really good football team. We had a block of the middle eight (final four minutes of first half, first four of the second) where we played really poorly, but I don’t think there was anything wrong with our prep.”

To Smart’s point, the Fighting Irish scored 17 points between the 39-second mark of the second quarter and the 14:45 mark of the second half — a span of 54 seconds of game time — on a drive-ending field goal, a touchdown one play after a strip-sack fumble on Gunner Stockton, and the opening kick of the second half being returned for a touchdown.

Georgia actually outgained Notre Dame 296-244, but could not overcome a fumble in the end zone, the turnover that led to an Irish touchdown and a special teams breakdown.

Smart noted the back-breaking nature of such plays when teams are more evenly matched.

“I think when you play a quality team, just like every game we play in the SEC is tight,” Smart said. “And so when you’re in a playoff, you’re gonna play a good team.

“We trust the prep we have. We trust the rest and recovery we’ve had. And we’re gonna trust the plan we have to go out there and play at a high level.”

Smart said that, despite the underlying roster management taking place in his program — as it is in every program, with teams on the verge of the Jan. 2-Jan. 16 portal window — the focus has stayed on the game.

“Development occurs in December for us, and that’s what we’ve been focused on,” Smart said, noting that, regardless of players’ futures, hard work is the next step.

“Did you truly come here to develop? Because if you did, all your buddies are out there right now, everybody’s announcing what they’re doing, announcing that, I’m going into the portal, announcing that, I’m re-signing.”