Kirby Smart voices his concern with Georgia losing spring camp: ‘To not get those practices, that’s tough’
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Watch out SEC, South Carolina and Vanderbilt could be on the upswing once the 2020 season arrives.
In a roundabout way, that’s how Kirby Smart sees it as the Georgia coach expressed his opinion that the SEC teams that managed to participate in the majority of their spring camps will be at an advantage this offseason.
“I think if everybody didn’t have it, it probably wouldn’t bother me as bad, but it is certainly, you know we got a new office coordinator and new quarterback coming in, whoever it’s going to be, and to not get those practices boy, that’s tough,” Smart said during a Thursday appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show. “But not very many people got a lot out of it, you know, on average, I think we got three to four practices are what some of the SEC teams got in before they shut everything down.
“In the grand scheme of things, that’s not a lot but I certainly think, you know, some young players, some mid-year guys that came in thinking they were going to get a leg up on people, that may not be as big leg as they thought because they weren’t able to have those practices.
“If you were fortunate enough to have spring practice early, like some programs do, I certainly think that helps to get, you know, 10 or more practices in is huge.”
It would be fair to say Smart may have a point if several SEC teams managed to go through spring game but the list of teams that had two practices or less far outweigh those that got on the field a handful of times this spring.
Georgia wasn’t alone in not seeing the field this spring as Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Missouri, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Mississippi State did not have a single practice in football pads this spring.
The two league teams that got the most spring practice before all activities were halted? South Carolina and Vanderbilt, which finished with a combined 4-12 SEC record last fall.
Somehow, someway, Georgia will likely survive this disadvantage.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
