On Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET in Athens, Georgia, Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs will look to improve to 9-1 with a win over the Texas Longhorns. It’s an SEC battle with both conference championship and College Football Playoff implications on the line.
Right now, Texas A&M is actually getting rocked by South Carolina. The Aggies rank No. 3 in the CFP rankings. But more importantly, they’re ahead of Georgia in the SEC standings. If Texas A&M loses to the Gamecocks, and if Georgia wins over Texas, the Dawgs are making it to Atlanta for the SECCG. (Update: South Carolina blew it)
Whether that’s good or bad for UGA is up for debate. On one hand, missing out on the SECCG and just going to the CFP at 11-1 (assuming we win out) is a pretty nice setup. But it would also be pretty sweet to get another SEC championship. Regardless, that’s out of Georgia’s control right now.
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What Georgia can control is how it preps for Texas and how it plays on Saturday night in Athens. And on Friday night, when Kirby Smart joined Paul Finebaum on the SEC Network, he made it clear that that’s his messaging to his team.
“Save up,” Kirby Smart said. “I think I talked about it last time: don’t extend your energy on things that are foolish — your phone, wasted time, anxiety, things you don’t control. I really want them to rest and relax. It’s going to be a fourth-quarter game. All these games have been. They need to be ready and prepared to play in front of a hell of an environment. I can’t wait to see this environment in Sanford Stadium.”
As for Kirby himself, Finebaum wanted to know how he stays grounded. Smart’s answer had everything to do with family, and credited his old boss, the great Nick Saban, for teaching him that.
“Being around the family,” Smart said. “You realize there’s a lot more things going on in the world that keep things a little bit grounded.
Sometimes you can get overwhelmed and consumed with the thought of outcomes and all that. We try to stay process-oriented. I learned that from a pretty good coach.”
We’ll know soon enough if Smart’s message to his team leads to a win. Right now, Georgia’s a 4.5-point favorite over the Longhorns, per ESPN Bet. It was 6.5 just the other day.
