How start of Georgia football preseason camp is so different from when Kirby Smart played
Kirby Smart went from talking to his Georgia football team in the new, larger team meeting room in the addition to the Butts-Mehre building to going to the old team meeting room where he held his opening-of-preseason-practices press conference.
That came Wednesday afternoon, a day before the team actually begins practices, but Smart shuffled up the schedule because some players are finishing up exams from summer classes.
The team pushed up practices to Thursday morning instead of going in the afternoon as usual.
The start of practices is not like a brand new feeling for Smart for the 2023 team.
Truth be told, they’ve done their share of work together already this summer as Georgia aims for a three-peat national championship.
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“The NCAA has allowed you to do so much more in the summer,” Smart said. “I was just telling our players. It’s so different.”
Smart was an All-SEC safety for Georgia when he played in the mid-1990s.
“We didn’t see our coaches when we were here in the summer," he said. "We had testing when we got back. It was the first day when freshman reported. Now, we had 19 kids here in the spring. We had I don’t know four or five show up in the summer, but they’ve even done workouts. It’s not like the buildup of an NFL training camp where you haven’t seen guys. We’ve seen our guys. They’re here. They work out every day. It’s very important to separate summer from training camp. Sometimes as a kid, you can’t see separation because it’s just constant. It’s just all in a row. So we try to make a clear delineation that this is the end of this and this is the start of this.”
Smart expects to go back to practicing in the afternoon soon.
Georgia football injury updates
Smart just met with reporters two weeks ago at SEC Media Days in Nashville so there wasn’t much new to update as it relates to injuries.
Defensive end Mykel Williams (toe) has done some football activity.
“He should be able to go at a lower volume but he should be able to practice some.”
Defensive lineman Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins is dealing with a stress reaction in his foot and has been held out of summer work recently.
“He should be cleared soon,” Smart said.
Kirby Smart doesn't feel great about Georgia football DL depth
Smart said he’s concerned with depth on the defensive line—“Tackle, end and nose all in one.”
Georgia lost possible starter Bear Alexander at the end of the spring. He transferred to Southern Cal.
“A lot of positions concern me in depth,” Smart said. “Offensive tackle concerns me with depth. We’ve been spoiled at some position. Every year is different.”
Props from Kirby Smart for walk-on Georgia football RB Cash Jones
Smart said he’s interested to see where Andrew Paul, coming off a torn ACL a year ago, is in his recovery.
“Where is he in terms of catching the ball, stamina, burst, acceleration?” Smart said.
With Branson Robinson sidelined with a foot injury, Smart talked up walk-on Cash Jones who had 44 rushing yards last season and a touchdown and two catches for 11 yards.
Smart said the 6-foot, 182-pound Texas native put up good weight room numbers.
“He may be our fastest back; pound-for-pound, he may be the strongest guy on the team,” Smart said. “His unique ability is to catch the ball out of the backfield.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: What UGA football coach Kirby Smart said about preseason camp opening
