Kirby Smart explains what allowed Georgia to finish with strong second half against Missouri

Georgia was on upset alert this weekend as they found themselves down 16-6 to Missouri this weekend at halftime. Thankfully for the Bulldogs, they were able to rally and win the game 26-22 thanks to a late drive led by quarterback Stetson Bennett, capped off by a one-yard touchdown run by Daijun Edwards. Head coach Kirby Smart spoke on how his team was able to overcome adversity on road in their down to the wire victory.

“Well it takes number one being in shape, physically in shape, it takes being mentally strong, it takes consistency, and performance,” Smart explained. “You have to perform under great pressure repeatedly, it’s really more about playing on the road and having a demeanor about you that you understand regardless of where you’re playing in our league, the road games are really hard. And I don’t think that’s ever gonna change and you got to be prepared for that, and momentum’s a very powerful thing, and we didn’t have that for a long time in that game.”

The Bulldogs won’t be on the road for quite some time, as they have a four-game homestand starting with their matchup this weekend against Auburn. But it was good that they were able to face some adversity on the road, especially for their younger players, which Smart also spoke on.

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“I think anxiety would be one of the things that you worry about with a young team and really the first real road environment, because the South Carolina game played out so different. We started really fast, I guess we were up 14 nothing, 21 nothing, pretty quick and the crowd never really got into the game, took them out of the game, we didn’t do that the other night,” Smart said. “And so some of those youthful, anxiety guy playing in that kind of atmosphere for the first time, where a team, last year’s team, they would’ve played in that a bunch of times.”

Smart lost a record 15 players to the NFL Draft last season and is definitely working with a lot younger team this year. But what they lack in experience may be made up for in talent, which combined with their newly gained, big game experience could help them in the long run as the season continues.

“So there’s a lot of youth there, but to be honest with you it was a great opportunity to see what we’re about, because I don’t know if you can find any greater adversity than being down ten points in the fourth quarter, resiliency, all those things. But we gotta make sure we do a good job building on that and that we start faster and better,” Smart said.