Georgia Bulldogs' Kirby Smart Jumps in to 2021 with an Olympic Dive
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ATHENS - Georgia Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart is diving into the 2021 football season.
The sixth-year coach did his best Olympics impersonation late last week with a hesitant fall off the ten-meter platform at UGA’s Gabrielsen Natatorium. The feat was reminiscent of when former Georgia coach Mark Richt did his yearly dives (and his were dives not falls) off the ten-meter during the Bulldogs’ pre-season workouts.
Georgia will start pre-season practices the weekend of August 6th. The Bulldogs are expected to be one of the top-ranked teams in the nation. They will need a gold-medal performance right off the bat to deal with fellow power Clemson, which enters the game as a four-point favorite over the Bulldogs.
There are a slew of interesting things to watch at Georgia gets ready to start their preparations for the 2021 season.
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First, JT Daniels played well to close the 2020 season - leading the Bulldogs to a come-from-behind win over No. 8 Cincinnati at the Peach Bowl. But can he sustain that level of play over a 12-game (and beyond) season.
Legendary Georgia QB Aaron Murray told Dawg Post a week ago that he’s eager to see what Daniels can do, and that he expects him to have a good season. But the former Georgia signal caller said that he has concerns, too.
“My expectations for JT Daniels are pretty high honestly,” Murray said in July. “The thing that concerns me about last year is the strength of schedule. JT took over against Mississippi State; then South Carolina. The best team UGA played was Cincinnati, and that wasn’t his best performance.”
Georgia won its final four games of the season on the way to a fourth top-ten finish, and its third win in a New Year’s Six bowl game in a four-year period. Daniels ended the four-game run with 1,231 yards, ten touchdowns and two interceptions.
Second, is Georgia’s offensive line going to figure out a starting lineup at the start of the year, or will it have to figure out the lineup as the season goes on. Kirby Smart said he wasn’t certain yet.
“The goal is to be better at the end of the season,” he told reporters when asked about the offensive line.
The specific position to watch there is left tackle. Rhode Island native Xavier Truss has the size to play the spot, and has been there since the Peach Bowl. But there are a slew of players who will challenge at that spot - including true freshman Amarius Mims, who was considered a five-star prospect.
Finally, the Bulldogs pulled in two high-level transfers in the secondary, and it remains to be seen if both will have the ability to plug and play their way into what has consistently been one of the top defenses in the nation. Both Derion Kendrick (Clemson) and Tykee Smith (West Virginia) were considered all-conference players a season ago. If those two can play effectively the Georgia defense should be in good shape.
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