UGA Football Coach Kirby Smart Doesn't Seem Worried About His Young Football Team
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ATHENS - The 2025 Georgia Bulldogs are going to be young. Really young.
In fact, this will be one of the youngest Georgia teams we’ve seen in a long, long time.
Kirby Smart has to replace several top players from last year’s roster and is hoping the “youthful exuberance” of the younger players will ignite more fire, passion and energy throughout fall practice.
“54 percent of our players are coming into their first or second year,” Smart said at SEC Media Days.
“What do you get with that? You get youthful exuberance. We've had practices that have been spirited. We had a great spring practice where we talked about the words fire, passion and energy. I think the biggest thing that separates college football teams today is complacency among players versus fire, passion and energy among players. So we've tried to highlight those traits as much as possible with our players. Our players need to bring juice and energy each and every day. If they don't, they'll be confronted by the players that do. And if the players continue to do that, we'll have a successful season and a successful football team.”
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Now it’s hard to ask a first and second year player to set that type of tone. Fall camp is where the better players rise to the top. Those are the ones who lead by example and bring the “fire, passion and energy” to practice. However, Smart has said repeatedly that second-year linebackers Chris Cole and Justin Williams have done that as well as anyone on the roster.
But those guys are special. Not every first or second-year player has what it takes to not only power through fall camp but lead the way among the group. It’s up to the older guys, the leaders, to set the standard for this year’s Georgia team.
When over half the team is within their first two years with the program, that makes it tough to hold the standard that’s been set. But that’s where the Dawgs are at, especially in the trenches.
“We're going to be really young, especially on the offensive and defensive lines,” Smart added.
That’s a statement that will keep Georgia fans up at night. Georgia’s veteran, experienced offensive line was a disappointment last year. Now, in a year they have to take a significant step forward, they’ll be depending on some younger players if some of the veterans go down. They have plenty of experience in the starting rotation, but there’s a lot of youth right behind them.
There’s two or three veterans on the defensive line that need to set the tone, but after that? More youth. It’s a talented group, but they’re still young there.
In an era of college football where teams seem to get older, the Bulldogs are full of young, hungry pups who need to take their game to the next level. Quickly.
Kirby Smart doesn’t seem super concerned right now. However, he knows he’s got to get his group ready. Expectations are high, and if the Dawgs want to win another title, they’ll need to grow up quickly this fall.