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Weather brings challenges, silver linings for Kirby Smart, Georgia

Jeremy Johnsonby: Jeremy Johnson08/07/25JeremyO_Johnson
Kirby Smart Georgia
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart during Georgia’s practice session in Athens, Ga., on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Tony Walsh/UGAAA)

Conditioning was a major storyline for Kirby Smart and Georgia in the spring. Smart had a few comments about the way the Bulldogs were able to practice early in their 15 spring practices.

He did not feel their conditioning level was quite where Georgia’s staff needed it to be to practice the way that they needed to. Smart was mostly thinking of Georgia’s freshmen and younger players, who could be a major part of their team in 2025.

Georgia’s roster is 54 percent first and second-year players.

“We really can’t practice to our standard because they’re all tired … so we got to do a better job of getting them in shape,” Smart said back in March.

“I’m calling out all the freshmen for not being in shape,” Smart said in March. “There’s not a guy out there, a freshman, that’s sustaining his reps and just flourishing.”

Kirby Smart finds silver lining in weather conditions

The Bulldogs are a week into preseason. Smart admits he doesn’t have a full grasp of his team’s conditioning level yet. The weather is to blame.

Rainstorms have peppered Athens for much of camp.

“They’ve been blessed,” Smart said on Wednesday.

Smart has also found a positive in the cooler temperatures that have come with the rain. The Bulldogs have been able to get a lot of work in. They’ve also been able to stack a lot of good repetitions for some younger players.

“I’ve tried to make it a positive,” Smart told reporters on Wednesday. “I think that it’s also easy to sit back as a coach and say, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, we haven’t had the heat. We haven’t had the mental fatigue or the tough moments in camp from a temperature standpoint that we typically have. I’m trying to use that as a positive to say, you know what? We can play faster, and we can get timing in the passing game. We don’t have to worry about mental exhaustion mistakes because they shouldn’t be heat exhaustion. They might be mentally tired from practice. But it’s not the same as it would be. The conditioning level may not have been tested like we want to. It has also allowed us to take more reps and do more two-spot and get more guys to develop, which has been good.”

Georgia opens the season with Marshall on Aug. 30. The Bulldogs also have a scrimmage set for Saturday. Temperatures will also be in the 80s once again.

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