Kirby Smart on 'intensity' of G-Day spring game: 'We want to treat it like we're playing Clemson today'

Saturday will give fans their first look at Georgia in 2024 as the Bulldogs play in the annual G-Day spring game. There are plenty of big names returning from last year, but also some new faces donning the Red and Black this season.

Not only will they all be on display in the spring game, but Kirby Smart is hoping for a full game-like atmosphere. He doesn’t plan on making things easy on Saturday at Sanford Stadium.

“I’m looking for intensity,” Smart told SEC Network’s Taylor Davis. “We want to have a game. We want to treat it like we’re playing Clemson today. We’re playing Georgia today. We got a great opponent, and we want to go out get better.”

The list of returning production includes quarterback Carson Beck, who found his stride as the starter last season and opted to come back rather than declare for the NFL Draft. He’s looking to take a leap on the field, but Smart is seeing some improvement away from the gridiron, as well.

“A lot of poise,” Smart said of what he’s seeing in Beck. “A lot of moxie, a lot better leadership. He’s growing as a player.”

Beck didn’t necessarily get off to a fast start to his time as the starting quarterback after Stetson Bennett’s departure for the NFL, but his breakout game came against Kentucky in October. That’s when he threw for 389 yards and four touchdowns to lead Georgia to the resounding 51-13 victory – and prove he had fully arrived.

All told, Beck completed 72.4% of his passes for 3,941 yards and 24 touchdowns as the Bulldogs made it back to the SEC Championship. He could’ve declared for the draft, but opted to run it back at Georgia and try to build off his success in 2023.

“We had we had a really good year,” Beck told reporters earlier this spring. “Our goal is always to win it all, as it should be every year for every program. But we didn’t achieve that goal. So coming back with that same mindset, and because we didn’t reach that goal, that definitely led to it. And then obviously, just the connection piece that we have here at Georgia. The relationship I have with the coaches, the relationship I have with the players. It all just came to me making the decision to come back and wanting to do that for another year.”