The Dawgs Are Back - After a Long, Long Break UGA Football Starts Practice

ATHENS - By the way, the Georgia Bulldogs are set to start practices on Monday. 

It goes without saying, but this has been the most back and forth start to a season in memory. Still, the Bulldogs will start their quest for the SEC title (and beyond - is there a beyond in 2020?) on Monday. 

For weeks the program has run around - voluntarily - getting ready for a season that first looked like it was going to start the Monday after Labor Day; then on September 26th; then not at all; and now on September 26th again. 

As of Sunday we still don’t know UGA’s schedule for this fall.

Meanwhile, UGA coach Kirby Smart has been less vocal about the future of the college football season than his peers who have reached the College Football Playoff. Dabo. Saban. Coach O. Lincoln Riley - they’ve all had something to say about where we are at. 

Kirby has been quiet on this front. 

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Needless to say Big Ten coaches have been vocal about their lack of a season. What must Kirby have been thinking over these last few months? We’ve talked with him twice in that time, and much of those conversations about been about how to navigate what we've all been going through. 

Now Kirby and his pack of Dawgs get the chance to talk with their helmets and pads.

There are a slew of questions: 

Is Jamie Newman as good as he looks on film?

How good can this Georgia defense really be in 2020?

What is it going to be like to experience a football game that has the atmosphere of a high school game in Valdosta?

Will officials overreact to being able to more clearly hear what coaches say on the sidelines?

How serious will players take program requirements about health and safety while not in the football facility?

How does UGA, and the rest of the SEC, put up a shield for players going to classes so they don’t contract COVID-19 while fulfilling their educational requirements?

How with UGA and the rest of college football rescue their finances without full stadiums this fall?

Make no mistake - this Georgia team has the defense to win the national title. It may be much improved on offense with a change at offensive coordinator and more meaningful production at quarterback. This could be a special year at Georgia. Then again, challenging for a national title isn’t really special any more at UGA. 

That’s the sort of job Kirby has done in Athens in a matter of a half a decade. Can he be the coach to best adapt his program to the complex situation that is college football in the fall of 2020? He might be. Just have a look at what he did at quarterback this off-season. 

You get the feeling that this season may be as much about (and this is the wrong word to use) survival as anything else. We’ve never had a situation where testing for a virus has kept players from playing or coaches from coaching before. 

But we do now, and all of that starts Monday.