UGA's Smart makes annual trip to the Macon Touchdown Club
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
In front of him sat six high school players, each with a fat resume and requisite talk of how many stars were next to their names.
And at the far end of the table on the stage at the Methodist Home for Children and Youth sat another such player.
They were and will continue to be feted and fawned over and perhaps overhyped until they show up to college.
Kirby Smart had a warning for those seven players.
“The transition from high school to college is one of the toughest things I’ve ever been through in my life time,” the two-time national champion head football coach at Georgia said Monday night at the Macon Touchdown Club’s annual year-end jamboree. “They don’t hand you a jersey number and tell you how good you are. You walk in that locker room, and it’s humble pie.”
He remember strolling into that locker room in Athens, circa 1994, ready to show out.
“It was June, maybe 6, of 1994,” he said. “I was between two defensive backs, I was the short little 5-10, 175-pound white kid, and they said, ‘Do you kick here?’ I was immediately crushed.”
Smart advised the highly touted prospects, all of whom had Georgia among the power-5 programs under consideration, to remember that nobody cares about those resumes.
“Hopefully,” he said, “they will embrace you as one of their own.”
The Club honored a selection of state and local players, as well as handed out scholarships, five worth $3,000 each. That gave Smart another chance to preach about humility and appreciation.
Local award winners Nick Woodford from Northeast and Jake Walls from Central Fellowship (top), and J.T. Wall of John Milledge (bottom left). Retired FPD head coach Greg Moore was honored for his years as the Vikings’ football boss. Northeast’s Johnny Williams IV and Tattnall’s Brayden Smith were unable to attend.
Photos: Michael A. Lough/Central Georgia Sports Report
“You don’t get a chance to pave the way for the next generation unless you give back,” he said. “(Funding scholarships) means a lot, because you’re giving back to your communities. When you give back to the sport of football, you’re giving back to the state. It means a lot to me, because I grew up in this state, was raised by a high school coach in this state.
“When I see all these high school coaches and these parents that give so much time and effort, traveling with these kids all over, taking ‘em to and from practice, it is not easy.”
The club announced it was adding a name to its local back of the year award, naming it after longtime head coach and longtime Touchdown Club member Edgar Hatcher. It went to Northeast sophomore running back Nick Woodford. Teammate Johnny Williams IV – already enrolled at West Virginia – was the Bill Turner Lineman of the year, and Tattnall’s Brayden Smith the special teams player of the year.
Smart well knows the Hatcher name and family, considering Chris Hatcher was his first boss, at Valdosta State not long after the turn of the century.
“I want to give a special shout-out to Edgar,” Smart said. “That whole time I was at Valdosta State those two years, (Edgar) meant so much to our program, also to his son, Chris. He’s meant so much to this state, and really meant so much to this community.
“You can’t think about football in the city of Macon without thinking about Edgar Hatcher. I appreciate all you’ve done.”
And he led the crowd of about 500 packed to the walls in the Mumford Center gym in applause.
Smart didn’t touch on the recent tragic events surrounding the program, the accident that killed two members of the football program and injured two others, nor the connection of defensive lineman Jalen Carter – charged with racing and wreckless driving – to the crash.
He reiterated some of the policies and processes that have put Georgia atop the college football world, noting that a new motivational technique involved mantras of the most successful sports team in history. Only one person in the crowd knew who he was talking about: the All Blacks rugby team from New Zealand, founded in 1892, which has won 94.4 percent of the time the past four years and nearly 80 percent of the time since 1903.
That team operated under four standards: nobody is bigger than the team; it’s an honor, not a job; better never rests; sweep the sheds/eat off the floor. (For his take on those, see the video starting at 11:45.)
Smart touched on several topics, nothing too specific about the 2023 Bulldogs outside of the obvious, replacing a two-time national championship quarterback.
He repeated the obvious: Carson Beck, Brock Vandagriff, and Gunner Stockton need reps, reps, reps, and that’s the focus of spring practice, letting the race play out on its own.
He wished his players would have come back from spring break and headed into spring practice in better shape, but he knew from experience not to expect much.
“I’m not pleased with the conditioning, because I don’t think enough of our guys spent time conditioning over spring break,” Smart said. “But also, I didn’t condition over spring break, either, you know what I mean? I’m talking about as a player or coach.”
Smart got another chance to brag a little on Georgia’s poster child for perseverance, Stetson Bennett, whose story everybody in the room knew. Smart thinks Bennett’s football career is far from over.
“I think he’s got a bright future, because he’s really talented, he’s got a great arm talent, he’s a really good athletic, and he’s smart. He’s going to get an opportunity to play for al ong time, in my opinion, because of his athletic ability.”
Smart took advantage of the timing to re-tell a little of the Bennett story to Retelling part of the Bennett story to those highly touted players in front of him.
“It just shows that it really doesn’t matter where you’re from, how small it is, or how many offers you got,” he said. “Nobody cares. It’s what you do with it that matters, and he capitalized on that.
“I mean, (John Milledge head coach and TD Club state coach of the year, and former UGA walk-on) J.T. Wall. We just talked about it, right? He came in there, walked on, earned a scholarship, was drafted. There are success stories all over the place of people that have overcome a lot of adversity.”