Sounds like there’s a different tone for the 2025 season. Where I can recall Kirby being chastised for how he handled Beck – hands in shoulders, being gentle, understanding – has quickly dissipated into some healthy ball busting.
“We have to coach it. I mean that’s what they get that’s what they pay us to do,” Smart said after practice on Tuesday. “They have to be willing to receive coaching and, on the whole, preach after the practice. We got a lot of guys that put their hands up. They’re offended when you coach. I’m not talking about the freshmen. I’m talking about in general.”
Smart was not thrilled.
“We had multiple NFL coaches come through here go to practice and you know they talk about how their players love to be coached,” Smart said. “They’d (former players) love to be given a nugget, a technique that might help them play longer or play better. Some of our guys were thinking about it … it’s like, ‘You’re coaching me hard like you’re telling me I got to play with effort?’ Some of them, I guess they’ve never held up to that standard, but that standard is not going to change here.”
The more that is said – after the fact, mind you – the more it seems that 2024 was an exercise in mental gymnastics rather than mental toughness. Oscar Delp even admitted his focus was elsewhere during the season, and sounds like he’s dialing it back in and emerging as a team leader.
“Last year, there were times I felt like I had one foot out the door, and I’d just think about things I shouldn’t have been thinking about, and it just kind of hurt me in ways that I didn’t think would happen,” Delp said. “I mean, just listening to the outside noise.
“I kind of struggled with looking at my phone too much when I shouldn’t have been looking at it, and looking at things that people were saying about me and about potential things.”
I wonder where the toughness went? With guys being out of shape, physically and mentally, was it Scott Cochran’s absence? Consider he joined in 2020, and was announced as gone from the team in February of 2024.
Consider further what happened to Alabama…last championship was in 2020, and none since. Maybe the coordinator we should be focusing on isn’t named Todd or Mike or Glenn.
One more example, from Monroe Freeling:
”We thought we were there”.
An offensive line full of seniors and seasoned leadership, but they were more afraid to fail than to succeed. That would go a long way in explaining Carson Beck’s performances in many instances. Could also be why a switch flipped when Gunner came in in the SEC Championship Game. Say what you will about his mechanics, but fearless, he has that in spades.
Whatever the change is for 2025, it’s gotta start between the ears.
And it sounds like Kirby is already getting in to those this spring.
Go Dawgs.
sounds like being ELITE is making a comeback
Also sounds like Kirby’s decided, fuck this kinder, gentler approach, we’re gonna weed out the slackers.
Imagine there will be a lot of those who are ‘encouraged’ to explore other opportunities after Spring practices are done.
He is explaining that football is not about money. Football is about seeking excellence. Doesn’t matter how much cash Ray Lewis or Tom Brady have in the bank, they’re coming for your soul. You can aspire to that level or you can take your Jay Cutler ass out of Athens.
Confirmation that when Fall camp broke last year something was off with the team and Kirby was struggling to find the right buttons to push. HC can only do so much…guys on the field have got to take charge. Clearly some of that leadership was on the bench with injuries and either Carson could not relate to his guys or his guys could not relate to him. Probably both. The NIL / free agency devils have infected the sport and coaches are still dealing with amateur kids not professional men. Not a unique problem to us. Kirby will find the guys who came to play vs pay but may take a few roster cycles.
There were quite a few bright moments out of that team. The nd game was not among them.
As important, we have no proven way to score points on that roster. We’d better show up ready to gata at a special rate while we figure that out or its 2009 again.
Kirby rebuilt the program on hardnosed toughness, get in your ass coaching. I think the NIL era made him step back a little. Now he sees that shit didn’t work. We may be less experience this year, but I think he will get us back to an aggressive ass, bust your balls, football team.
Kirby wants his teams to be player-led. He has said that since he arrived. With today’s team as being greater than half have never been through a Georgia practice, I’m guessing Kirby has to reestablish the culture of the program.
Seems Kirby saw the same repugnant shit in nola that I saw.
Fat and happy is no way to go through georgia bulldog football life, son. You’re gonna need to be ready and willing to whip some asses or gtfo.
CKS do have him a fair bit of self reflection in his Bulldog soul and his Red and Black heart, as was with 2019, he found change was needed, not sure change is needed in 2025, as much as revitalizing “The Process”, no holds nil has fucked up college football, that learning nil curve has been steep, CKS is navigating several fronts, setting the early tone appears the direction of 2025 UGA football…GO DAWGS!!
I smell some portal activity
Freeling could be making excuses subconsciously after the fact. I don’t get anything out of Kirby that makes me think that even if his team were the Seal Team 6 of college football that he would not complain that they need to be tougher and more focused. That is the secret to his success and I am thankful.
You could tell that something was off with this team last year. How many 1st half clunkers did we have. There never seemed to be a killer instinct last year. They won by being more talented, but they let a lot of inferior teams hang around far too long due to being “out efforted”. It finally caught up to them in NOLA.
Yeah, having Notre Dame (of all teams) be more physical than us was bad. Hope that never happens again while Kirby is here.
I don’t disagree with any of the criticism people have leveled at last year‘s team. However, I’m heartened by the fact that if Carson Beck doesn’t get hurt in the SECCG, we win the national championship. Notre Dame? Penn State? We win going away. Ohio State? Very good team, but I think we have a no worse than 50/50 chance of beating them. We did finish the season as SEC champs and number two ranked in the country. Injuries are part of the game, so that’s the way it goes, but just think what Kirby will have this team doing in a year or two.
I absolutely love it. This gives me hope that we’ll be able to withstand this year’s gauntlet of a schedule. Oh, they’ll get their money. But Kirby showing he’s not going to coddle these men. Shit it and get it or else.
I am hearing — RTDB and stop the run. You can’t win if you can’t do both. No one will ever convince me that CSS is a good O Line coach. I will say that I believe that CKS has a plan and maybe CSS coaches hard and he likes that. I don’t think it translates into improvement, but I can at least understand the why on CSS.