Smart: Bulldogs must rediscover their physical identity

ATHENS — Kirby Smart didn’t spend the opening day of Georgia’s preseason camp talking about quarterbacks, preseason rankings or College Football Playoff projections.

Instead, he delivered a reminder of what he believes still separates champions from everyone else.

Run the football.

Stop the run.

Everything else comes after that.

Coming off a season Smart openly described as “subpar” in the running game, Georgia opened fall camp Wednesday with renewed emphasis on reclaiming the physical identity that helped produce two national championships.

“We have to be able to run the football,” Smart said. “Show me a good team that wins championships that can’t run the football. It just doesn’t happen.”

That message framed the first day of camp as the Bulldogs begin preparing for another run at the SEC and College Football Playoff.

Smart believes Georgia is positioned to take advantage of August. The Bulldogs enter camp with roughly 125 healthy players available for practice, giving coaches an opportunity to build depth while discovering which players can handle the grind that has become synonymous with Georgia football.

Smart refers to camp as “addition by subtraction.”

Players temporarily move away from everyday distractions, spending nearly two weeks immersed in football while coaches search for the toughness and resilience needed to survive fourth-quarter battles in the fall.

“We have to test toughness,” Smart said. “We got to find out what kind of grit we got during this camp.”

One player who has already proven plenty to his coach is sophomore safety KJ Bolden.

Bolden arrived in Athens as one of the nation’s most celebrated recruits and immediately earned a starting role as a freshman. Now Smart says his biggest growth hasn’t been physical but vocal.

Whether correcting younger defensive backs during walkthroughs or demanding better effort in practice, Bolden has embraced the leadership role once occupied by veterans Malaki Starks and Dan Jackson.

“He’s not afraid to confront and demand excellence,” Smart said.

Another defender drawing rave reviews is linebacker Chris Cole, whom Smart called one of the highest-character players on the roster after an offseason marked by relentless effort and enthusiasm.

The Bulldogs will continue monitoring several injury situations. Safety Kyron Jones will open camp on a limited workload while continuing to build toward full participation, and running back Dante Dowdell remains away from the team with no timetable for his return. Smart said the priority is Dowdell’s health, while adding explosive sophomore Dwight Phillips Jr. has enjoyed one of the team’s best offseasons.
Georgia’s tight end room may be among the deepest in the country, but Smart cautioned that even elite pass catchers depend on a successful rushing attack. Play-action passes and explosive gains, he noted, begin with defenses respecting the run.

Smart also welcomed college football’s new five-years-to-play-five eligibility rule, saying it eliminates difficult redshirt decisions and allows coaches to focus on player development instead of preserving eligibility.

The landscape of college football continues to evolve with expanded playoffs, roster limits and new eligibility rules.

Inside Georgia’s football complex, however, Smart’s formula hasn’t changed.

The Bulldogs will spend August searching for grit, building depth and trying to rediscover the physical edge that has defined the program’s greatest seasons.

If Georgia runs the football the way Smart expects, he believes everything else will have a chance to fall into place.