Kirby Smart responds to report claiming Jacksonville is close to keeping Georgia-Florida game
Kirby Smart has openly advocated for the Georgia-Florida game to feature some home-and-home matchups in the years to come, the Bulldog coach cites a lost recruiting date as his reason for wanting the game potentially moved to each campus, but it doesn’t appear that Smart will be getting his way on this issue.
According to Seth Emerson of The Athletic, an agreement to keep the annual SEC East showdown is “close” to happening says Jacksonville city spokesman Nikki Kembleton. Emerson is reporting that the deal could be announced before the upcoming Georgia-Florida game on Saturday, Nov. 2.
Following that report, Smart was asked to share his thoughts on the news during his most recent media availability on Tuesday evening.
“All I can say is there’s ongoing discussions,” Smart said when asked about the report. “I’ll be dead honest with you. I am focused on our team, making sure our team is trying to improve and get better in every facet of it and that’s my single-minded focus. It’s not single-minded focus on Florida. It’s not single-minded focus on Jacksonville, it’s single-minded focus on us. We’re all trying to go to the doctor right now.”
While that’s not saying much, Smart didn’t exactly welcome the news, which is interesting considering his public stance on where he would like to see the games played.
That wasn’t the only question Smart faced on scheduling during his most recent presser, as Georgia’s coach offered up this comment when asked about the health of his team and where Georgia’s second bye week of the season landed for the Dawgs.
“Like I’ve said before, bye weeks fall where they fall,” Smart added. “I never get into, that’s great that it falls there. I think the SEC does a good job of balancing that out. You look at the big games and teams have off weeks before each other a lot of times. I’m sure they try to do that to not create a competitive advantage.
“It falls at a good time for us because we are beat up, but who’s not?”