ATLANTA — Apparently Georgia coach Kirby Smart does not scare easily.
A gut-wrenching, final-play loss in the biggest game in program history in over three decades would be more than enough to have most coaches and players assume the fetal position during video review. Smart, however, just offered a simple shrug when asked if he was “haunted” by the Bulldogs’ 26-23 loss to Alabama in the CFP National Championship game back in January.
Just as a painful reminder to Dogs fans, Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa connected with DeVonta Smith on a 41-yard touchdown pass in overtime for the game-winner.
“Losses don’t haunt me, they motivate me,” Smart said with nary a blink of the eye while addressing the media at the SEC Media Days Tuesday at the Omni Hotel. “We don’t look back at the past. We look forward to see how we can get better as players, coaches, and as a team. It always hurts to lose, especially like that, but it doesn’t haunt me. It makes me want to work harder.”
During a pair of press conferences Tuesday Smart addressed issues on a variety of topics ranging from the final play of the 2017 season to recruiting to quarterback Jake Fromm’s recent broken hand mishap to assessing his own growth as he enters his third year as head coach Between the Hedges.
“I think a lot things with growth are about becoming comfortable,” he said. “That first year (at SEC Media Days) there were a lot of things that I was uncomfortable with compared to today. Every year you learn.
“I think going into year three, probably the biggest difference was being able to delegate certain things, saying 'here, Coach Tucker, you handle this, Coach Chaney, you handle this' and being comfortable with that. I think that alleviates a lot of undue stress or pressure that might be on a first time head coach and being comfortable in your skin and saying you know what, I'll let him handle that and let him do that. That's probably the biggest difference in one to two for me and hoping two to three that that continues to grow because you have a staff for the purpose of helping you.”
On Fromm breaking his non-throwing hand in an off-season boating incident...
“My first thought was which hand? But as far as getting upset or anything, not really. No one would really have known about this if not for social media and I think way too much has been made about it. When I played there were all kinds of things that happened to us as players that no one knew about because there wasn’t the daily scrutiny there is now because of social media. I’m actually glad to see the kids doing things and staying active than just sitting around all summer.”
On watching replays of the National Championship game...
“We watched it and evaluated it as a staff afterwards. Obviously I see it on replays and different ESPN highlights. I think we embrace that as coaches. I think that's something that you guys think about a lot, but not really us.
“We're on to the next year. We are on to the new recruit. We're on to the next strategy, whether tactical, medical or physical. We're constantly looking for the next edge to get the next edge for next year. It's something we don't have to rehash all of the time.
“I think how players will use that experience to grow, and I think that's big for our program and understanding that if you do things a certain way, that you can get to certain places. We just have to be able to finish it when we get there.”
On Justin Fields’ development and their plan to use the nation’s top quarterback recruit...
“Justin is a kid whose got tremendous ability. He's embraced and hungry, really came in wanting to learn right away. Took on those 15 practices head on.
“He's going to come in and compete very similar to the way Jake Fromm came in and competed with (Jacob) Eason. He's coming in to compete and learn our system. He's made the players around him better. He's embraced the challenge of learning the offense, and he's a very bright young man.”
On his thoughts of what are the expectations heading into the 2018 season...
"This season for us is going to be simple. It's going to be the measure of potential versus effectiveness. And when I say that, a lot of people are like, yeah, every team has a certain amount of potential. I think potential is dormant ability. And I think effectiveness is what we get out of our potential. And we talk to our players all of the time, the pressure is really a privilege.
"You should feel privileged to have pressure to win games, to have expectations. Everybody is talking about the expectations. Last year this time, they were talking about the same expectations for the University of Georgia. I went back and reviewed my notes for this event, and it was the same thing. Georgia is expected to do this, to win the (SEC) East, to win championships.”
http://accesswdun.com/article/2018/7/693177/smart-dogs-not-haunted-by-cfp-title-loss