ATHENS — Scott Sinclair has arguably more influence over the Bulldogs’ success than any person outside of Kirby Smart in his role as director of strength and conditioning.

It’s Sinclair who oversees the team outside of the NCAA’s allotted team workouts, monitoring each player’s progress closely while ensuring optimal growth and development.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Sinclair, who was hired away from Marshall in January of 2016 shortly after Smart became head coach, has things down to a science.

Sports Science

“We have a great sports performance department, so it’s not just us and strength and conditioning,” Sinclair said on Wednesday. “We have our nutrition, our sports medicine, our sports science and our mental health (departments) all do a really good job of working with our athletes.”

Sinclair noted that receiver London Humphreys and defensive tackle Elijah Griffin were recently identified as two of college football’s “freak” athletes in an article penned by The Athletic.

Griffin, a 6-foot-4, 310-pound second-year player, has a blend of size, power and quickness on the field an in a recent workout had a 9 foot, 5-inch broad jump, a 29 1/2-inch vertical jump an 355-pound power clean.

Humphreys’ selection might surprise some, but his broad jump was 11-5, his vertical was 35 1/2 and he power cleaned 315 pounds — along with running a 40-yard dash in under 4.35 seconds.

To put Humphreys’ long jump into perspective, only one UGA player had a longer jump at the NFL Combine in recent school history — Chris Conley, at 139 inches.

As for Humphrey’s 40-yard dash time, it was faster than Zach Branch ran at the 2026 NFL Combine (4.35) and Arian Smith ran at the 2025 NFL Combine (4.36)).

Dating back to 2009, only Eric Stokes (4.25), Keith Marshall (4.31) and Mecole Hardman (4.33) have run faster 40-yard dash times at past NFL Combines and UGA Pro Day workouts.

Freaks and Developmental Phenoms

Sinclair noted past UGA “Freak” athletes being Nick Chubb and offensive lineman Ben Cleveland.

Chubb, at 227 pounds, had a 38 1/2-inch vertical and broad jumped 10 feet, 8 inches with a 4.52-second time in the 40-yard dash.

Cleveland at 6-6, 354 pounds, ran a 4.85-second time in the 40-yard ash and did 30 repetitions of 225 pounds on the bench press.

But Sinclair notes he and his staff put just as much time into the UGA players who are not at the top end of superlatives when arriving.

First-round NFL cornerback pick Eric Stokes and Los Angeles Chargers record-setting receiver Ladd McConkey were once two such players, both underweight when they arrived at UGA before developing into star players and NFL starters with the benefit of their development under Sinclair and his staff.

Many remember Philadelphia Eagles’ star and NFL first-round pick Jordan Davis as an overweight freshman three-star product out of Charlotte, N.C., too.

Sinclair said the Georgia freshman still “lift extra” in season, as “an extra day in there helps,” and pointed to third-year tailback Dwight Phillips Jr. as a player who has made great strides in the weight room.

Of late, thanks to the marvels of modern technology, Sinclair has more to work with in developing players.

“I think the science part within the last five to 10 years has changed what we do,” Sinclair said. “From our GPS information to our sports science department, it just gives us another eye for us to be able to see what we see and for it to be able to tell us what’s accurate or not.”

Sinclair said the staff studies the GPS information, which tracks each player’s movement and speed, and tailors workouts to the position of each player.

Extra Work, Tough Discipline

Once in season, the lifting and workouts continue, but with Sinclair and his staff closely monitoring what they call “load management” to ensure peak condition each Saturday.

“I like to call it undulating — we’re going up and down because certain times of the year, they need a break,” Sinclair said. “.Certain times of the year within our program, we’re gonna give them de-load weeks to make sure they’re at their best….

“There’s three or four different things we use from a sports science standpoint to test them weekly to see where their central nervous system is, to see if they are responding and they’re recuperating, or if they need a little bit of time.’’

Once place there is not time is during practices, where Smart keeps a close eye to ensure maximum effort and hustle is given on each play, and even between plays.

Smart identified players for extra conditioning on more than one occasion during a two-hour workout amid a heat index over 100 degrees, letting Sinclair know over his trademark mic that a certain player should be added to a morning conditioning run.

“Coach Smart is tough, and I just say when you can’t fulfill your practice quota or practice reps, and sometimes when guys may not be in the shape that we need them to be in, then we’re going to do our job and try to get them in the best shape we can be,” Sinclair said.

“It’s hard for us to condition guys to get them in football shape, (because) the best way to get in football shape is to play football,” Sinclair said. “So we can get them to a point to get them ready to go for camp, but sometimes certain guys may need a little bit more extra, a little bit more push.”

And if Sinclair and his staff can’t find the right way to motivate, the Bulldogs’ team culture is such that it can become player-led in the weight room and workouts, as well.

Sinclair shared a story of two players who were late for a team workout and were not wanting to follow through on the discipline associated with such tardiness.

“We have big stairs in our weight room, and you have to climb the stairs with a 45-pound plate in each hand and 80-pound weight vest, because that’s being disciplined, that’s being accountable, all right?” Sinclair said.

“We had two players that didn’t wanna do it, and I had two (players), I’ll just say they were on the defensive side of the ball all, go over and say what’s going on?”

Sinclair explained to the older players that the players who were late didn’t want to conform to the team disciplinary rules.

The players said “Coach, I’ll handle it,” and stayed with the tardy players to ensure they followed through on the extra work.

“When you got a player-driven team and not just coach-driven team,” Sinclair said, “that’s one thing that I look at and say, all right, we got a chance.”