By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com

Under normal circumstances, Kirby Smart the Coach would’ve hung around for a few minutes and signed items and had his back patted and his 2021 football team thanked, and bolted.

But Kirby the Dad was in a hurry to watch his son pitch.

“Tonight, I’m trying to be the good dad - I haven’t been home for about four nights, kind of on the road speaking – to get back to his game. He pitches tonight at 7:30 in Little League.”

Smart left about 10 minutes after that tentative start time.

So Smart’s yearly visit to the Macon Touchdown Club Jamboree was shorter than usual, but the 450 or so on hand at the Methodist Home for Children and Youth still got their money’s worth from – for the vast majority on hand – their national championship coach.

As for money’s worth, Smart again passed on the speaker’s fee and returned it to the club and Methodist Home, which has grown increasingly important to Smart since he started as Georgia’s head coach. Two UGA helmets – one signed by Smart, Herschel Walker, and Drew and Kevin Butler, and one with a Georgia logo on one side and the national championship logo on he other, signed by Smart – drew $4,200 for the club’s scholarship fund.

Smart talked for more than 35 minutes before hustling out, his group leaving at the same time as Governor Brian Kemp’s and Macon-Bibb Mayor Lester Miller’s.

He said taking every opportunity possible to do family things is huge, as his family grows.

“I have a 9-year-old son and 14-year-old twins,” he said. “One thinks she’s going to be a basketball player, although she’s not. She’s on the AAU circuit. I got a 14-year-old boy that’s on the tennis circuit.

“So, we spend about half our weekends in Macon playing in the Macon tennis center or we go to Rome for the Rome Tennis Center. I’ve got basketball, I’ve got tennis covered, and then my 9-year-old son plays football, basketball, baseball.

Editor’s note: Video of Smart’s talk to come Tuesday

“He thinks he’s one of our players.”

Smart said the talk within the program isn’t about repeating, that it’s about getting the most out of every team that shows up. Then he spoke directly to part of the audience.

“I want the young men and parents of the young men in this room to hear me now. The expectations that are placed upon you, a lot of htem are not even aredn .They’ve been given to you, you get these accolades that’ve been given to you. You have a large step and obligation in front of you to continue playing the game the right way.”

He said he was on a rules committee, and one major topic was the decrease of the number of officials on all levels. Not for COVID or health or finances.

Honorees
Elmo A Richardson Player of the Year
Vic Burley, DE, Warner Robins
State Honorees
Zavion Hardy, DE, Tattnall
T.J. Searcy, DL, Upson-Lee
Adam Hopkins, WR, Thomas County Central
Gabriel Harris, DL, Valdosta
Aaron Gates, ATH, Trinity Christian-Sharpsburg
Jonathan Hughley, OT, Langston Hughes
Bobby Gene Sanders Memorial Scholarships
Grayson Dugger, Jones County; Camden Smith, FPD; Charlie Morris, Tattnall; Sushrith Panda, Central
OrthoGeorgia Back of the Year
Travion Solomon, Northeast
OrthoGeorgia/Bill Turner Lineman of the Year
Coleman Cauley, FPD
OrthoGeorgia Special Teams Player of the Year
Evan West, Jones County
Marvin Davis Bibb County Co-Coaches of the Year
Jeremy Wiggins, Northeast; Greg Moore, FPD
Bobby Pope State Coach of the Year
Marquis Westbrook, Warner Robins
Recognition of Naval Academy appointments
Coleman Cauley, FPD; Myles Brown, Covenant

“Our game is at a deficit for officials. The high school game is deteriorating because there are very few officials. I thought that was interesting.

“They polled all these officials that aren’t officiating any more. You know what the number one thing was? Lack of sportsmanship.”

Smart put the blame on himself and coaches, for perhaps not demanding enough discipline from players.

“What is discipline? Dong what your supposed to do, when you’re supposed to do it, how you’re supposed to do it, whether anybody’s watching or not. That’s what discipline is. If we don’t instill that in our teams, in our young men or young women, we’re deteriorating.”

He said it’s not the job of officials to manage or inspire sportsmanship, but it is that of coaches.

Smart said Georgia players, and most players in general, do prefer discipline, from coaches and teammates. The desire for that and the overseeing of it from players is a main reason the Bulldogs won a national title. The poster child for it was linebacker Nakobe Dean.

Georgia didn’t choose captains until after the regular season, each player – 130 in all – voting for three players. Dean set a record with 115 votes out of 130.

“It told me these guys want discipline, because the one guy that was probably the most disciplined on our team was Nakobe Dean,” Smart said. “This young man was different.”

He remembered Dean focused on taking notes in meetings as late as before the SEC Championship game with Alabama. There was a play in that game that was pointed out in the meeting, about Alabama quarterback Bryce Young acting like he’s looking for a signal from sideline, which the defense then does.

Dean was told about that, and that he was to focus on Young. At the snap, as predicted, the defense was off-balance looking to the sideline, but Dean made the play.

“I thought, Man, that guy listens,” Smart said. “That didn’t mean a hill of beans, because we got our ass kicked that game.”

As with many things in sports, it’s contagious. Georgia is early in spring practice, a work in progress with so many departures and accompanying question marks, but Smart has a level of confidence.

“I worry about the leadership void, but what’s happening is, it’s contagious,” he said. “They all want to be that guy. They want to be the guy that confronts and demands.”

Smart talked some football, before and after questions.

He’s had to replace a good chunk of his staff, in this case a positive.

“Sometimes, change is good,” Smart said. “Change has been great for us. There are one of two things (about change). You can win, and lose coaches, or you can lose, and get fired. I’m pickin’ this one.”

He said the new coaches bring additional energy to spring practice, giving the returning staff a re-charge.

Smart had the requisite “I like it, but it needs work” response for the requisite name-image-likeness question.

Improving communication within the team has been a priority, to help build chemistry, with meetings of mixed groups, not just by class or position.

“What happens is guys get comfortable,” Smart said. “They talk and they spend time with each other. You should try it some time. Where’s one of these things?”
He reached for a cell phone.

“This is not how stay connected, right? You want to stay connected, you have to talk to somebody.”

No, no, there wasn’t a different defensive game plan for the SEC Championship game than for the semifinal and final, even if it sure looked that way.

“I know you find this hard to believe, but a lot of the calls we had were the exact same calls. No. 1 difference is we won four out of five in the red area. When you win the red area, that’s four points every time. If they happen to go for it, it can be a seven-point swing. We didn’t win the red area in the first game.

“We were in much better shape, but we were in much better shape because we got off the field on third down. You have a third-down conversion, it exacerbates how in shape you are. You gotta go play three more (snaps), then you gotta go play three more. … We got tired quick.”

He said after the Michigan game, he told five unnamed players that they needed to get up at 6:30 a.m. for five straight days and run extra if they wanted to win the national championship.

“They didn’t have to do it, because I can’t not play you,” he said. “They were going to play. … They all did it, and you know what? It paid off. They lost some weight, they had better conditioning, but we won third down.”

The championship did, as expected, pack his social plate, but more than usual, thanks to COVID and having to cancel many things. Now, he can try to catch up with them while dealing with the additional scheduling issues that come with a national championship after 41 years.

“Look, I could have gone all the years as the University of Georgia head coach, or as a defensive coordinator somewhere in the country, and I’d have been OK if I never won a national championship, because I don’t do it just for that.

“I do it for the relationships I have with players. I do it for when Channing Tindal goes across that stage with his diploma.”

But yeah, winning the last game is pretty good.

“The championship is just something on top of that,” he said. “I’m very thankful for the Georgia fans in this room that have waited so long, and all the grown men that were crying when when Kelee Ringo ran that (interception) back.”