Georgia baseball coach Wes Johnson using Kirby Smart-like catchphrase, approach

Another similarity between Johnson’s and Smart’s coaching styles is the catchphrases. Smart built his program upon sayings like “keep the main thing the main thing” and “keep chopping wood.”

Georgia baseball has returned to national prominence under Johnson’s leadership, and the veteran SEC coach has brought a common baseball phrase to prominence in Athens.

“Respect the game.”

He’s used it throughout his career elsewhere, but it’s new in Athens. It’s a reminder for the highly touted Bulldogs to fight complacency.

Sound familiar?

“Football has to deal with it a lot every week,” Johnson said. “I’m not putting us on football’s level, don’t misunderstand that, but I’m saying I think Kirby does a phenomenal job of getting his players ready to play every week, no matter who they’re playing. And the target’s not going to get much bigger than what he has.

“So for us, it’s on a smaller scale because we play a lot more games, but it’s similar to kind of put it in perspective.”

Respecting the game will be especially important for the Bulldogs this week after receiving a new level of praise. Georgia was ranked No. 1 by two national polls Monday.

Several publications also projected UGA as a top-eight national seed this week.

Baseball America, On3, and D1Baseball all projected Georgia to earn a top-five national seed May 26 on Selection Monday. The Bulldogs saw a jump in projections after sweeping SEC bottom-dweller Missouri while several top teams lost series to inferior opponents.

Johnson appreciated the No. 1 rankings, chalking them up to the program moving in the right direction. But he kept the focus on UGA’s next task at hand.

Georgia is trying to win enough SEC games to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

“You want to put yourself in position to host and then put yourself in position to be a national seed, and unfortunately, being ranked No. 1 doesn’t do that for you,” Johnson said. “If this is two weeks from now, then we’re really fired up because then you’re going to achieve all those goals, right?”

Johnson knows Georgia needs to stay task-oriented to achieve those long-term goals. It’s a core tenet to the culture he’s established, and it hasn’t changed since he was hired.

How he sells that culture to his team has changed, depending on its expectations. Johnson’s “respect the game” mantra wasn’t necessary in 2024.

“Last year, I didn’t have to talk about it as much because I felt like we were the underdog a lot,” Johnson said. “You typically have to use that sometimes when the target is bigger on your back and you are out there and people are trying to beat you.

“You want to make sure your guys just come in and respect the game and play it hard no matter who you’re playing because … in my career, you’re not respecting the game if you think you’re just going to show up and win, and you get beat in the midweek when you shouldn’t get beat.”

Johnson will continue to repeat himself, but with plenty left to play for, he hopes Georgia’s veteran roster can stay focused without any prodding.

“We’ll probably go into (Alabama), and I mean, come on, think about it,” Johnson said. “The two teams we’re playing our last two series are fighting for something, right? Getting to 15 wins, getting in the tournament, potentially hosting. Everybody’s got a lot on the line, as we do, too, right?”

Smart has accomplished plenty more in a decade than Johnson has in a season and a half. But Johnson arguably had a better first season than Smart did at Georgia.

Topping Smart’s second season at Georgia will be much tougher, as that would require an SEC championship and a national title game appearance.

Those are two long-term goals that Johnson will leave for the future, choosing instead to focus on the series ahead.

Respecting the game.

The Bulldogs will visit No. 23 Alabama this weekend before closing the regular season by playing host to Texas A&M on May 15-17. First pitch at Alabama’s Sewell-Thomas Stadium is set for 7 p.m. Friday.