Kirby Smart is the master of motivation when it comes to his Georgia Bulldogs football program.
Nobody really thought the 2022 Georgia Bulldogs were going to go 7-5 last year, not even their incredibly clever head coach Kirby Smart.
Not only did Georgia not go 7-5 last year, the Dawgs won all of their games, en route to a perfect 15-0 College Football Playoff National Championship-winning season. This second national title in a row might have been the greatest season in Georgia football to date. The defense may not have been as good as the 2021 team, but the offense was more than better enough to make up the difference here.
So when Smart was asked about if he ever said to his players that the expectation for Georgia was to go 7-5 last season, he offered this: "If I ever thought we were going 7-5, they need to check me into a psychiatric ward."
There is a new undisputed king of college football, and it is the program Smart is running perfectly.
Kirby Smart makes fun of Georgia possibly going 7-5 during 2022 season
Look. Football is hard. Winning at the highest level is so painstakingly difficult. So when you look at a program like Georgia under Smart, you have to be impressed at what he has done in his first seven years back at his alma mater. The Dawgs have played in six straight New Year's Six bowls. They are 5-1 in the playoff all time under him. They have won two SEC Championships and two national titles.
Only in his mid-40s, Smart is pretty much a lock to make the College Football Hall of Fame as perhaps the greatest head coach of his generation. As the greatest protege of the greatest college head coach of all time in Nick Saban, Smart has taken his mentor's blueprint and brought it into The Peach State. Georgia may not three-peat this year, but the Dawgs are the favorites to do so anyway.
For now, we cannot wait to see what new and creative ways Smart will motivate his players. Yes, they still have to play the games, but their biggest foe is undeniably internal complacency. It is much easier getting to the top than it is staying there. Everybody in college football is gunning for Georgia, and Smart is well aware of this. It is why he will use ridiculous 7-5 tactics as a crazy source of motivation.
Whether you like it or not, the results speak for themselves with Smart at the helm of his alma mater.
