NEW ORLEANS \u2014 Kirby Smart had a vision for this Georgia football team entering spring drills last March, and he didn\u2019t exactly know what it would lead to this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just knew it was what the team needed,\u201d Smart said on Tuesday at the Sugar Bowl media day at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel. \u201cThe best version of this team was only going to get there with fire, passion and energy, an ability to run the ball, and ability to stop the run.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs have come up big in those areas of emphasis, leading to an SEC championship season and the upcoming appearance in the College Football Playoff Sugar Bowl quarterfinal at 8 p.m. on Thursday in Caesar\u2019s Superdome.<\/p>\n
Smart, in his 10th season as Georgia\u2019s head coach, is focused on taking the next step toward what would be his third national championship and it starts with the game against Ole Miss.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Georgia head coach has his game plan in place for the Rebels, who advanced by defeating Tulane in a CFP opening round game, 41-10, on Dec. 20 in Oxford.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an Ole Miss team UGA defeated earlier this season, 43-35, on Oct. 18 in Athens.<\/p>\n
Georgia will be taking the field for the first time since defeating Alabama, 28-7, in the SEC championship game on Dec. 6.<\/p>\n
Of the eight remaining teams, UGA is the only team to have an opening round bye the past two playoffs, and Smart revealed the blueprint he put in place to handle the layoff better than last season, when the Bulldogs were eliminated by Notre Dame, 23-10, in last year\u2019s CFP Sugar Bowl quarterfinal here in New Orleans.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing in shape is one,\u201d Smart said, referencing the uptempo offensive style Ole Miss has utilized in running up a 12-1 record and the No. 2 offense in the nation with 498 yards per game.<\/p>\n
\u201c(And) being focused, and understanding this is a business trip and you\u2019re here for a purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
The focus and motivation in this season\u2019s Georgia\u2019s team has been conveyed through the players\u2019 interviews, with linebacker Raylen Wilson summing things up by saying the Bulldogs have \u201ca chip on the shoulder\u201d after last year\u2019s disappointing ending.<\/p>\n
Smart shared that he has been direct with his players when discussing the challenges not playing a football game for more than three weeks poses and Georgia looks to regain its regular season-ending momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou address the advantages or things you will lean on that you feel like are an advantage for you, and we try to list those things out,\u201d Smart said. \u201cHere\u2019s the things we\u2019re strong at, and we\u2019re going to lean on these things \u2014 these are our core identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of late, the Georgia offense has answered the bell, with quarterback Gunner Stockton operating at a high-efficiency clip with his decision making and ability to extent plays under the direction and play calling of offensive coordinator Mike Bobo.<\/p>\n
Smart doubled down on the job Bobo has done this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s the right guy, I know he\u2019s the right guy\u2026.\u201d Smart said. \u201cI\u2019ll put him up against anybody in the country because of his knowledge, his experience, what he\u2019s done and the staff he has.\u201d<\/p>\n
And now Smart, working in concert with his staff, aims to put out the best version of Georgia football for the remainder of the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal every year, I learned this a long time ago from Coach (Bobby) Bowden and even my dad (Sonny Smart) is like, did you get the most out of that team?\u201d Smart said. \u201cI think there\u2019s some coaches that get the most out of their team and they don\u2019t win the national championship and that\u2019s a hell of a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to be able to credit a lot of people with a hell of a year and it\u2019s unfortunately gotten to where it\u2019s win it all or nothing,\u201d Smart said. \u201cI look at it intrinsically as, did this team get the best out of itself, and this team needed fire, passion and energy. It needed the ability to run the ball and it needed the ability to stop the run, and we haven\u2019t done that perfectly, but we\u2019ve done it at a little bit higher level than we did in years past.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW ORLEANS \u2014 Kirby Smart had a vision for this Georgia football team entering spring drills last March,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,63076,398,396,397,99,169486],"class_list":{"0":"post-378758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-media-day","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-sugar-bowl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}