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Kirby Smart, Dabo Swinney would love to play against other teams in preseason
By Andrew Olson
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If NFL teams and Georgia high schools do it, UGA coach Kirby Smart doesn’t see why college football teams shouldn’t hold preseason practices and scrimmages with other teams.
“We did that in the NFL when I played and coach, and it was great,” Smart said on 680 The Fan’s The Front Row Wednesday. “Now, every now and then it gets a little heated with some scuffles. It’s much more enjoyable for the players than the same monotonous thing. They get to each other, they get to scrimmage, play somebody else.”
Smart was asked about practicing or scrimmaging with another team a day after Clemson coach Dabo Swinney voiced support for the idea on “The Rich Eisen Show.”
“Man, I would love to have the opportunity — even if it wasn’t in public — I’d love to have the opportunity to go scrimmage another opponent, someone you don’t know much about,” Swinney said. “[Teammates] know each other’s nuances when you’re on a practice field day in and day out.”
Jason Butt of the Macon Telegraph points out that a preseason scrimmage is not prohibited by the NCAA, but the teams would each lose a regular-season game due to NCAA bylaw 17.9.5.1. So unless the bylaw changes, don’t expect the Bulldogs to be scrimmaging against anyone other than the Bulldogs this offseason.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
