Kirby Smart discusses how Georgia has built hard-working culture

Georgia has remained nearly flawless through three weeks of college foobtall action, and that comes as no surprise to Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart. Since taking over the program in 2016, Smart has instilled a standard that has since provided Georgia with a national championship.

Still, Smart says his mission has stayed the same since he arrived in Athens, and his players are all in on it.

“I don’t know that it has evolved. Nick Chubb and Sony [Michel] talked about it all the time. Lorenzo Carter, Davin Bellamy, they all bought into it,” Smart said after the South Carolina win last week. “The first year I wouldn’t say they bought into it because it was really, really hard and I don’t know that they reaped the rewards from it. But from then on, they’ve kind of bought into ‘this is who we are, this is how we’re going to do things.’ It’s just kind of the way we do them.

“They sell that to each other. They sell it to the younger players so that we don’t have to. If you do that you can get better but please don’t mistake that for thinking that we have the best practices in the world. We have not always had the best practices in the world, our kids believe in practice paying off for the game though.”

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

The four players Smart mentioned specifically regarding those who have bought into Georgia’s hard-working culture – all are still on active rosters in the NFL. Chubb specifically has become a valuable member to the Cleveland Browns’ offensive efforts, and even Bellamy, who went undrafted in 2018 and has been a practice squad player ever since is now on the New Orleans Saints’ 53-man roster after being named All-USFL this past summer.

Even with a College Football Playoff Championship under his belt and a dominant 2022 NFL Draft class, the standard remains the same. The only difference? More players bought in.

“I don’t know the championship helps itself,” Smart said. “I think the standard that was created last year and the legacy was left, that was a really special group. And that still lingers around our building. Not the championship, but the fact of the way they practiced and the way they carried themselves. And there’s a lot of kids that try to emulate those guys that are gone. And they’re good kids to emulate.”