I'd bet CBS picks up UGA-UT at 3:30 as well. Only other meaningful SEC game that day is Kentucky-South Carolina and Florida-Mizzou. Everyone in the West is playing a cupcake, non-conference opponent.
Actually I'm impressed by how good richt was. I lived through it but easy to forget after his last 80 games.
It’s also precisely why the early Kirby comparisons to the first few richt years by our rivals were so damn funny. Early Richt was elite and just missed out on a couple title opportunities. Richt with a four team playoff would’ve likely won one. Most teams, including many of our rivals, would kill for our early richt years right now. Kirby’s still much better though, I’m glad we cleared that up.
guessing this year's team motto is One Mission. Whatever works. Good to see leadership council doing this before summer workouts start.
Kirby Smart is heading into his eighth season as the head football coach at the University of Georgia, having led the Dawgs to back-to-back College Football Playoff National Championships. But early on, it was unclear whether the Georgia program was ready to take that next step from being good to being great. Smart discussed that journey on "The Growth Project" podcast with UGA sports psychologist Drew Brannon. Smart admits that while he was aware of spending time strengthening relationships within his program off the field, it was not until after the 2021 Peach Bowl win against Cincinnati that he really bought into its true value. “I didn’t spend a lot of time on it at Alabama, so I was not as adverse in it," Smart said. "Now, you and I both know that Trevor Moawad worked there at Alabama with those guys, and I had a good relationship with Trevor. But there would be times that Trevor was trying to impart knowledge or ideas on me that I was like, ‘Hey, man, that’s all good. I’ve got to get these scripts done. I’ve got to get these plays done. I’m a lot more worried about getting this done, getting my work done.’ I thought that I controlled things on what I called and how we played instead of investing that human capital in the players of maybe talking to that player and maybe he plays better, and maybe that makes your play work better. But Trevor was really good at that. He tried to carry some of that over, and he certainly helped us tremendously when I got here." Georgia had just gone 8-2 during the 2020 season, which was shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, missing the SEC Championship for the first time since 2016 and failing to return to the CFP for the third-straight season, which Smart referred to as "stagnant years." "I say stagnant years: they were successful years," Smart said. "We’d won the East and won bowl games, but they weren’t where we wanted to go, and we had to look at ourselves in the mirror and say, ‘What can we do different to get some different results?" "And that was a big moment for me in my career because you could argue — it wasn’t that I was anti doing that before, but it had never been presented that way. It had never been presented to me. I think we’d all had just gone through a really strange time ‘cause that was the COVID year, so it was like we came out of the year 8-2. It was not a great year, but it wasn’t a horrible year. We played an All-SEC schedule and didn’t get to play a game — had one game canceled on us out at Vandy, so it was kind of like, ‘Man, we just won the Peach Bowl, and it’s like nobody’s even — nobody’s even happy. Where are we headed here? Where is our relevance?’ And we did a big introspective look, man. To have your staff go through and critique you anonymously and look at you and say what can I do to help them? I think that was really valuable information for me in my career, and you’re right — it was not easy. It was very uncomfortable to do that, and really do that with the whole team to try to see where we could get better." One aspect that Smart realized a change needed to occur was in his own coaching style, which had been not only meticulous but also very much hands-on. “Delegate, freedom to trust more people to do their job," Smart said. "I wish so bad I could go back and be better at that. I think it was kind of like this mold of a person that wasn’t shaped. You’re shaping this sculpture, and I was not as a young head coach, I was not sculpted. I was like, OK, I’ve got to learn trial by fire here of, ‘I can’t do that. I don’t have enough energy to do that. OK, I don’t have enough expertise to do that. OK, I need to let this guy do this because this is his strength. OK, maybe this guy stays two more years in the program if I allow him to do this ‘cause he feels like I’m developing him.’ That’s probably the biggest thing is allowing myself to let the organization run and let people do their job, but I don’t know I would be here today if I had done it that way in the beginning, if you follow what I’m saying. "There’s no textbook — nobody handed out a book that said, ‘Hey, here’s how Coach Smart wants to run it’ ‘cause I couldn’t write that book then. I didn’t really know, so you had to go trial by fire. We had to say, ‘That’s not how I want it done.’ ‘Well, OK, Coach, tell me how you want it done.’ ‘Alright, here’s how I want it done.’ OK, then the next guy who comes in, he knows how you want it done now. And I think that’s important. We had to get here through this journey. I couldn’t have just jumped to this spot being a first-year head coach, so I learned a lot about relationships with players, relationships with staff, family, family time, and to be honest with you, Drew, the game’s changed. Like, the climate we play in and coach in now is so different than it was eight years ago. The demands are different. So, like the demands on time are just awful, so I’m constantly looking at the calendar saying, ‘How can I get it better for my coaches so they’ll enjoy being here?’" So Smart asked for and was given the green light to build out his support staff, which he credits for changing the culture in Athens to one that fosters the level of success the program is currently experiencing. “Well, the first way we’ve built it is through help," Smart said. "We’ve gotten outside assistance. We’ve got a tremendous staff. I mean, I have the luxury here of one of the best staffs in the country. I couldn’t have that without my administration, so, like, they pump all kinds of amenities. When you start talking about the things we have at our disposal, being able to use outside groups like yourself, being able to use the people we’ve hired, I mean, you are part of our culture, and we do that because we have people who buy into it. Like, it doesn’t matter what you say or what you do — these programs you put in and implement — if you don’t believe in them. And the people in this organization, they believe that it matters how you talk to players, how much time you spend with players, how much the players reinvest in themselves. "I mean, I think the biggest difference in those two games, we won 12-13 games and lost two or lost one, the biggest difference in the last two years has been the players themselves believing in each other and kind of buying in and connecting. I can’t say that the other teams weren’t. They were connected. They had good buy-in and good culture, but the last two have just been different. When you see that difference — and it might be three players’ difference in terms of leadership. Not in terms of talent because we’ve had talent, but the leadership we’ve had internally and what we’ve done with ‘em as a staff to bring that out — like, we’ve given them a platform to lead, and we’ve let guys get up in front of the team and talk. We’ve immersed ourselves in sacrificing time away from football and investing in the person, and I think we’ve gotten really good return on that investment based on the last two years seeing us grow these young men into really good leaders. I’ve heard it and you’ve talked about it before: if you invest in human capital, it’s the best investment you can make bar none.” The margin for error in college football is so minuscule that teams try to maximize every minute possible to gain an edge, pushing their players to the limit on the practice fields, in the film room, and in the strength and conditioning program. Smart credits Brannon with fostering the belief that there is value in spending time to grow internally. “No, and the toughest part, Drew, is you told me this in the beginning when we kind of went down this path and started really believing in this program and the things we do with them is that if it’s not — if there’s not belief at the top, it’ll never work," Smart said. "And I can say that, I didn’t fully believe in doing things like this when I first became a head coach. I didn’t believe in it the second year. I didn’t believe in it the third year. Somewhere along the way, it morphed to that, into the mindset part, the training. There’s all these little things you can do that people think, ‘Well, that’s hokey’ or this or that, but if you believe in it and you get people in your organization to believe in it and buy into it and they’re OK being a little uncomfortable — like, I’ve got coaches that maybe have never done that and they’re older than me and they’ve been coaching longer than me, and they’re an assistant coach and they’re like, ‘Well, I’ve never done it this way.’ Well, hey, we’re going to do it this way here because this is what I believe in. Let’s just try it and see if it works. "And we’ve done that and it has worked, but we have kind of implemented the part of, hey, everybody’s got to buy into this and not just like — there’s 10 coaches here, but we’ve got another 25 support staff. We’ve got 10 athletic trainers, we’ve got five strength coaches, we’ve got four-player development people, and when you add all of them up, they’ve got to buy into it just as much as I do.” While belief at the top is crucial, the buy-in has to come all the way down to the bottom as well, which means the players have to trust what the coaching staff is asking of them. Smart says that the path to trust is a long one. “Time. There’s no shortcuts," Smart said. "I go back to, man, if you could just inject this serum and be like, OK, I can go spend more time with my family, I can go spend more time with my parents, I can go spend more time with my brothers and sisters and their family, if I could just inject this serum where I have a great relationship with my team and my players, there is no substitute for a relationship over time. It’s been the age-old theory: You’re going to be who you invest in, and they’re going to care more about you and you’re going to care more about them when you spend time together. So we spend tons of time together. I think intentional time is important meaning, look, it’s not one thing just to go over and ask a guy how his mom’s doing every day, OK? You’ve got to sit down, talk to him, have meaningful conversations. Let them have the freedom to speak. I mean, so much of America and so much of business and corporate world is somebody talking at you instead of listening to you. I always want to be a really good listener. I think it’s important. You taught me a long time ago one of the most important questions you can ask someone — player, coach, employee, friend: How can I help you get where you want to go? ‘Cause ultimately that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to facilitate a coach to reach his dreams, a staffer to reach his next goal, a player to reach his individual goal as well as his team goal. I can’t have a great relationship with someone if they don’t know that I care about them and their family and where they get. I do think that time. I think I’m good at criss-crossing with someone in the hallway, at a weight workout, at stretch, at flex, you know? It’s a chance to visit with guys. Ultimately, you have to invest the time, and one thing we have in the offseason is time to grow those relationships.” That being said, people still want to find the shortcut. “I have figured this out: If you put more into it than the competitor, then that bond and relationship is going to be better. And that’s what we’re trying to do: make it more meaningful," Smart said.
How about the one, where he looks like he belongs on the LPGA Tour? That seems to be a favorite on rival fan boards.
so 2024 schedule looking like at minimum Clemson (atlanta) Tenn Tech at Texas Auburn Florida (jacksonville) at Kentucky Umass at Ga Tech would think out of the remaining 4 games there is a home game against at least 1 high end brand
but lol at media whining about only playing 8 conference games when we have 2 P5 ooc plus that dont think schedule strength is anything we will have to worry about
we dont, that was my guess. but all reports were that who the SEC wants as your permanent 3 in a 9 game schedule, they could make work for at least 1 more year in 2024. Hence why they greenlit a 1 year stop gap 8 game schedule. My guess is our protected 3 of Florida-Auburn-Kentucky will be on there. at USCe would not shock me either.
I had just heard that traditional rivals would be protected. Nothing about the permanent opponents from the suggested 9 game schedule, but I def could have missed something.
would think permanent and traditional rivals are the same thing, or a distinction without difference. only other opponent we have played more that Kentucky is Vanderbilt. They are as traditional as it gets. Probly why they landed as one of our permanents. anyways just my guess we are going to find out in a few hours.
I wonder, outside of rivals, if there is any attempt to square 2024 with past/potential future schedules, or if it’s just here’s some games go play ‘em!
There’s a part of me that wants some chaotic scheduling. “WHAT!?! We have a home and home with Ole Miss in the same season?”
rough draft of 2024 OL? LT: Earnest Greene LG: Micah Morris OC: Jared Wilson RG: Blaske/Fairchild RT: Monroe Freeling
Kinda shitty that it's @Bama when we've been there way more recently than they've been to Athens, but whatever I guess.
It would be cool to have a big name like Bama or Texas come to Athens. Seems like we never get those games anymore
I am fine with both. We will have a strong team. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. hopefully every year will be like this going fwd with stacked schedules, just wish we'd quit playing Clemson. Give me more road trips to Pac12 and BigTen. Pray UCLA stays on schedule.
Nike contract expires next year iirc, which is good timing to renegotiate for us coming off 2 Natties and #1 in SEC Directors Cup.