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Kirby Smart explains how Georgia will handle the unique nature of Senior Day
By Keith Farner
Published:
Kirby Smart continues to adapt to the changing nature of college football, and these days, that means multiple classes of players being eligible for Senior Day honors. Gone are the days of four-year seniors, and third-year juniors being available.
Georgia will honor its seniors this week against Charleston Southern for the final home game before the Bulldogs wrap up the regular season next week at Georgia Tech.
Georgia last year missed an opportunity to honor its seniors because the Vanderbilt game was canceled. Smart said now that the plan is to honor all fourth-year players or beyond. The NCAA last year granted every college athlete an additional year of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A lot of them have an extra year of eligibility, but we’re not crossing that yet,” he said. “We’d rather them have an opportunity to go ahead and walk, and then make the decision. If they walk twice, then great, they’ve got a special opportunity. Different times we’re in these days obviously. So I would rather err on the side of all you guys go walk, and then decide what you want to do, then not walk and possibly miss the opportunity.”
Third-year juniors are not included in that group, Smart said Monday at his press conference, because they will decide about their NFL plans after the season. This week is about players who years remaining, and Smart said there are quite of few of them on the roster.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
