Kirby Smart not concerned about how Georgia players will respond to LSU loss: ‘I think the players are resilient’
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If Georgia’s players felt the need to get down on themselves following the only loss of the season, Kirby Smart hasn’t seen that from his squad.
While the loss took away the opportunity at a perfect season, all the team’s goals remain in front of them as the race of the SEC East will be decided by what happens over the next two weekends, not what happened in Baton Rouge. Making things even better, Ohio State’s loss moved Georgia up in the polls during the team’s bye week, leading their path to the Playoff all the more evident heading into Florida week.
During his Monday media availability, Smart was asked about how his team has responded to the loss in the most recent game played.
“I think kids are a lot more resilient than you give them credit for. It’s the leaders of the program and the organization and the coaches that have to get over it. We’re the ones that deal with a loss sometimes harder than the players. I think the players are resilient; they’re back out to work,” Smart answered.
“We had really good-spirited work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday working on ourselves, just trying to get better for us. And Thursday led into some Florida stuff, and I think that was a good change of pace for them to start working on a new opponent and get ready for that. So our players have responded really well. They go out and compete each day. I would expect no less from them today.”
One concern coming out of the LSU loss was the play of Georgia’s passing game. The running game was working but the Bulldogs went away from it far too often against the Tigers. Getting back to the ground game will be something Georgia will need to do in order to control the clock and effectively attack Florida’s aggressive defense.
“I think anytime you look back it’s hard when you’re behind in a game,” Smart said about his team’s play against LSU. “Everybody wants to talk about that game, but at the end of the day you have to be successful with the running game to open up play action, to open up passing game. And that’s been our identity – be able to run the ball, be physical. That’s the strength of our team with our offensive line, certainly running and our backs. I think keeping those guys healthy and using James (Cook) and Brian (Herrien) in as many situations as possible, who are two good players as well, helps us, so we’ll continue to do that and do what gives us the best chance to be successful.”
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
