ATHENS — The Bulldogs have entered the final stretch of spring practice. Tuesday will be the team’s 10th practice of the spring, as the April 13th G-Day draws near.
It will also be Georgia’s first practice since the team went good-on-good in Saturday’s scrimmage. While all Georgia practices, spring or fall, are intense, scrimmages bring out a special intensity in Smart and the team.
“It was not a lethargic, like, ho hum [scrimmage]. The players had good intentions, good energy,” Smart said. “Sometimes it’s a different time start for the scrimmage than our typical practice times of 2:30, 3:30, so I always worry about us starting fast and having good energy. We had that.”
It wasn’t the most crisp scrimmage, which is to be expected with it being the first for the 2024 team. Subistions were off and communication wasn’t up to Smart’s standard. With 28 new scholarship players, four new assistant coaches and several veterans out with injury, it’s a lot of moving parts.
Smart was tepid in terms of doling out praise for specific individuals, but it would have been out of character if the Georgia coach did so.
He highlighted plays made by Dillon Bell and Arian Smith. But those also came at the expense of the defense.
“I don’t get into it like, ‘These couple guys blew it out of the water, oh gosh expectations are so great,’” Smart said. “I look at it as, ‘The defense sometimes messed up, we had some sacks.’ Did we have sacks because we have great pass rushers or because the back didn’t block the blitzer? Or we busted and slid the wrong way and cut a guy free. If a guy has a dominant performance, I’m more than happy to mention it. He beat every rep. But we didn’t have anybody do that, have a dominant performance.”
Smart did praise Dominic Lovett and Roderick Robinson, though Smart believed just about everyone could have played better.
Smart did spend some extra time speaking about how the defensive line performed. Many have wondered about the caliber of this group given Smart’s recent comments about how good the defensive line could be.
“I thought they did a really good job of having, like, energy and enthusiasm,” Smart said. “We affected the quarterback. We had some disruptive sacks. We did not probably play the run probably as well as I’d like to, as high as my expectation is in terms of making goals of 3.3 or less [yards] per carry.
“We’ve had much more dominant scrimmages from a defensive line than we had Saturday. We had some guys nicked up and banged up, but I was pleased with the tenacity and the way both groups of lines of scrimmages approached it.”
The defensive line, along with everyone else, will get another chance to grow, improve and perhaps even impress Smart this coming Saturday when the team holds its second scrimmage.
Georgia will have a third and final scrimmage on April 13. There will be no hiding on G-Day, with the scrimmage being televised on SEC Network+.
Smart will be eager to see how his team handles the slightly brighter lights.
“We’re moving toward how much can we improve from scrimmage one to scrimmage two,” Smart said. “You usually see immense improvement in guys that just got here because they’re not as nervous, it was their first practice in the stadium. So I’m hoping to see some of that growth this week and into Saturday.”
