Georgia freshmen coming to make or break point in preseason practice
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has long talked about a ‘freshman wall.’ Typically the conversation arises around late October or early November when the Bulldogs are well into their season. At that point, they would have played almost as many games as a typical high school season. And that’s why the freshmen will sometimes ‘hit a wall’ as the season drags on longer than they’ve been used to. At that point, it’s about pushing ‘through the wall’ to allow yourself to still make an impact. Those that do will see their playing time increase. Those that don’t, well, they’ll be on the sidelines when we’re having this discussion next.
But fall camp can bring about similar questions. It’s a demanding series of 25 practices to get prepared for the season. Sure, high school has preseason practice too, but the hours are nothing like what Georgia does, focusing solely on football for about two weeks before school starts. Then there’s still another two weeks until the start of the season where the first-year players are having to balance getting used to college on the football field with the same challenges off of it. As Kirby Smart said after Georgia’s second scrimmage of the season on Saturday, ‘camp is a grind,’ and the ones that ‘run through the wall’ will help immediately.
“Everyone is different. We definitely have some freshmen who have hit a wall right now. They are like, ‘Gah lee, this camp is a grind.’ It is the most physical, toughest practices they have ever gone through. It is part of being at Georgia,” Smart said. “We have multiple scouts and different people who come to practice and say, ‘Man, Coach, y’all practice with great energy and great toughness. Your kids get after it.’ You don’t realize that when they are telling you that, they go other places and you realize with these freshmen that the bar is huge for them to jump from where they used to practice to where we are practicing. That can be overwhelming.”
“Sometimes those guys hit a bump, hit a wall, and we have to do a good job as coaches to encourage them,” he continued. “Some of those guys have run through the wall and will help us immediately. Others are seeing the writing on the wall and go, ‘It ain’t my turn yet. I have got to continue to develop and get better.’ That is what separates great staffs and coaches from average. You have got to bring those kids along because they are the future of your roster.”
For freshmen like Malaki Starks, Mykel Williams and Dillon Bell – all names that we’ve heard quite a bit about during fall camp – Georgia needs them to push through the wall. And based on reports, it seems like they are. But those names that you aren’t hearing, there could be a couple of reasons why. First, they could simply not just not be in Georgia’s plans to play this fall. There’s no harm in redshirting, and at some positions, that’s needed to develop in the weight room and the film room, getting ready for College Football both physically and mentally.
Others could not be getting talked about just yet because they haven’t pushed through the wall. Georgia will need more than just those three to do so in order to compete at the same level it has the last couple of seasons. Time to step up to the challenge for those few freshmen capable of contributing in their first year.
