Skip to main content
Georgia

Georgia's bye week objective: 'Get better, get healthy'

Jeremy Johnsonby: Jeremy Johnson18 hours agoJeremyO_Johnson
Georgia
(Tony Walsh/UGAAA)

Georgia has one last reset remaining in the 2025 season. The Bulldogs are on their second and final bye week of the season.

The practice field bustled to life on Monday and will again on Tuesday. There isn’t a game awaiting on Saturday. Georgia earned a 43-35 win over Ole Miss on Saturday.

The Bulldogs did not play the way they wanted to, but they found a way to win once again. This week is a chance to fix some of the issues they’ve been hit with. One of which is health.

Head coach Kirby Smart is looking for improvement and a cleaner bill of health over the next seven days. Georgia had the chance to work in some of the younger players who have been limited in snaps in games so far this season as well.

“Excited to get back to work today,” Smart told reporters on Tuesday. “We had the guys in yesterday and got to put the game to bed and also got to work with some young players, try to watch a lot of tape and move forward. Big week for us to do a couple of things: number one, get better; number two, get healthier; and number three, keep improving in areas that we definitely need to.”

Georgia will travel to Jacksonville to face Florida on Nov. 1. The Bulldogs are in third place in the SEC standings at the moment.

With some help, Georgia could be in for another appearance in the SEC Championship Game as well as a playoff run.

Georgia is aware of that grind that is still ahead.

“It’s good to be at this week of the season, but looking forward, you know, there’s potentially — there’s definitely five more weeks and then there’s possibly six, possibly 10 more games,” Smart said. “So it could be 10 more games moving forward. It could be five games moving forward. Who knows, but we’ve got to prepare for that this week, and we’ll take that on in a very organized fashion, which we’ve already begun as a staff.”

Florida provides a unique challenge for Georgia

The Gators fired head coach Billy Napier last week. Georgia will not get to see the latest version of Florida before they meet in Jacksonville in two weeks.

Smart admits he’s more focused on his locker room than Florida.

“It probably affects it more than a one-week window, but in a two-week window, there’s still only so much you can do,” Smart said. “You know, they’ll make changes, and a lot of times you inject some energy when you do that. You look across the country at [teams] that have had interim coaches. They’ve had some really big wins and had a lot of energy. I know Coach Gonzalez is doing a great job. I’ve had respect for him, gone against him many years. They’ve got a really good staff, so — again, I hate to say it, but I’m not worried about them. I’m worried about us.”

The Bulldogs will use this week to begin preparing for Florida, and already have been.

“We’re going to work on what we do every bye week, which is us and our opponents,” Smart said. “Part of working on us is the opponents. So, I mean, we worked yesterday on opponents. We’ll be working today on opponents and working today on ourselves. We’re working on Florida. We’re working on other opponents we have coming down the road because we think it’s important to do that and get exposure to something that’s different. You don’t want to be in unfamiliar territory when you’ve got these games and these short weeks when you have time right now to look at it. So, yes, we’re going to be working on Florida. Yes, we’re working on opponents. And yes, we’re working on us.” 


You may also like