Kirby Smart blasts idea teams should fear injury risk, skip conference championship

On Friday, No. 4 Georgia defeated No. 23 Georgia Tech, 16-9. Although the Bulldogs finished the regular season with an 11-1 record, they aren’t guaranteed a spot in the SEC Championship game.

Either Alabama or Texas A&M must lose this weekend for Georgia to reach the conference championship. After UGA’s win on Friday, a reporter asked Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart if he’d rather not play in the SEC Championship game, in order to avoid injuries. Smart ripped apart the notion.

“If you worry about injury risk, we won’t practice next week. You live your life scared of injuries, you know what you get? A very scared team,” Smart said. “This is also an opportunity to win an SEC championship. Does that matter? Does anybody care about that anymore? I mean, I grew up thinking that was the greatest game in the world and just different from everybody else.

“Yeah, we lost guys today to injury. We’re going to lose guys in practice to injury. But, that’s next man up. Like, that’s what’s wrong with this whole thing now. It’s like, ‘Well, what if you get hurt? What if you do this? What if you do that?’It’s football. It’s all part of it.”

Prior to last season, there was no question whether or not a team wanted to compete in its respective conference championship game. It was all but necessary, if the team wanted to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Alas, with the playoff now including 12 slots, teams no longer have to risk injury in conference championship games to compete for the national title. Nonetheless, Kirby Smart wants to compete in the SEC Championship.

He’s won three conference titles at Georgia and the accomplishment has never prevented his team from winning it all. Last season, quarterback Carson Beck suffered an injury in the SEC Championship, but Smart didn’t allow the setback to stop his team.

The Bulldogs pushed forward and defeated Texas to secure the SEC title. In the process, another star was born: Georgia QB Gunner Stockton. Beck transferred after the 2024 campaign and Stockton led Georgia to a stunning regular season this year.

Smart won’t pass up an opportunity to bring SEC hardware back to Athens, Georgia. Injury risk is an unfortunate reality of the game, and there are few coaches in the country who know the game better than Smart.