ATHENS — Kirby Smart wants to know, can this Georgia football team take the heat?
It’s a new Bulldogs’ football team with several returning players in elevated positions and incoming players -- freshmen and transfers -- adjusting to a championship tempo amid stifling temperatures.
Two of the last three UGA teams won national titles, but last year’s group fell short, unable to withstand Alabama’s challenge in a 27-24 SEC title game loss.
Smart, entering his ninth year as the Bulldogs’ head coach, let his team know when they gathered on Wednesday night what fall camp is all about.
“Our introduction last night was very deep into why do you have a training camp, what is the purpose of having a training camp,” Smart said.
“It’s to build the toughness within our team.”
Heat, helmets and shoulder pads, along with drills, sprints and scrimmages will test Georgia players as they prepare for the season-opening game against Clemson at noon on Aug. 31 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
“We are looking forward to creating some mental and physical adversity,” Smart said on Thursday. “What’s our response going to be to the mental and physical adversity they face?”
Smart said that, though he pushed the team in spring drills, it’s not the same as working in August camp, with on-field heat index temperatures exceeding 100 degrees.
“I don’t know that in spring practice you can simulate that; we try to simulate it in the summer conditioning program, but it’s not the same as having all these pads on, helmets on, equipment on,” Smart said.
“I can’t simulate the heat they’re going to have with that equipment on,” Smart said, “so I don’t know how this team’s going to respond when stuff gets hard and stuff gets tough and guys start complaining to each other and they’re not running, and they’re not getting to the ball and practice is tiring, but that’s what camp is.”
Fact is, Georgia has only lost two games in Smart’s career when the temperature exceeded 80 degrees, and conditioning was not a factor in either game.
Quarterback Joe Burrow and LSU’s dominant defensive line play was the difference in the Tigers’ 36-16 win in Baton Rouge in 2018, while Hugh Freeze’s Ole Miss was simply just better than Smart’s first UGA team in 2016, winning 45-14 in Oxford.
Smart’s 14 other losses — he has 94 wins — came with kickoff temperatures of 80 degrees or lower (8), or indoors (6).
Georgia losses under Kirby Smart, kick-off temps
Dec. 2 2023 Alabama, Mercedes-Benz 27-24, Climate controlled
Dec. 4, 2021 Alabama, Mercedes-Benz 41-24, Climate controlled
Nov. 7, 2020 Florida, 44-28, Jacksonville, 79 degrees
Oct. 17, 2020 Alabama, 41-24, Tuscaloosa, 61 degrees
Dec. 7, 2019 LSU, Mercedes-Benz 37-10, Climate controlled
Oct. 12, 2019 South Carolina, 20-19, Athens, 80 degrees
Jan. 1, 2019 Texas, 28-21, Superdome, Climate controlled
Dec. 1, 2018 Alabama 35-28, Mercedes-Benz, Climate controlled
Oct. 13, 2018 LSU, 36-16, Baton Rouge, 86 degrees
Jan. 8, 2018 Alabama 26-23 (OT), Mercedes-Benz, Climate controlled
Nov. 11, 2017 Auburn 40-17, Athens, 55 degrees
Nov. 26, 2016 Georgia Tech 28-27, Athens, 62 degrees
Oct. 28, 2016 Florida, 24-10, Jacksonville, 80 degrees
Oct. 15, 2016 Vanderbilt 17-16, Athens, 70 degrees
Oct. 1, 2016 Tennessee, 34-31, Athens, 78 degrees
Sept. 24, 2016, Ole Miss, 45-14, Oxford, 86 degrees
