Bulldogs spent summer "looking within"
Last week at SEC Media Days, quarterback JT Daniels was asked to speak about the team’s offseason priorities.
Improved route running? Technique?
Actually, neither.
Per Daniels, Georgia’s offseason priorities have had little to do with physical improvement. Instead, players have taken a collective look inward, with focus on establishing a standard of excellence along with developing a core DNA to be shared by every member of the squad.
“The team priorities are the most important thing—establishing a standard of how we’re going to do things,” Daniels said. “Next, it’s establishing the actual core DNA, to really define that and have it written down for practice. I love it. That's been our biggest priority.”
Henry David Thoreau would no doubt approve.
Head coach Kirby Smart even quoted the classic American poet and philosopher during his session with the media, as he explained why he had his program take a more introspective approach when it comes to getting their minds right for the season ahead.
“Success comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. Say that again. Success comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. That's Henry David Thoreau,” Smart said. “For me, that's it. I'm too busy working. I'm too busy trying to do the next thing. I'm too busy trying to take the next step to give our team a competitive advantage to really worry about expectations.”
Smart said he’ll leave those concerns to media and fans.
“That’s usually what people want to know about. But for me, I'm too busy working to worry about that. We want our team to think the same way. We've taken a very introspective look this year after the season last year,” Smart said. “We did a lot of surveys, a lot of talking to our players, and one of the key words, the biggest thing that came out is connection. When you're on a Zoom with somebody, it's hard to have a connection. When you're not allowed to sit within six feet of somebody, it's hard to have a connection.”
The rest, Daniels said, will take care of itself.
“I don’t have talent concerns. I don’t have it, or say we’re light at DB, or anything like that. We have players,” Daniels said. “I think we’re headed in a really good direction and for me, that’s the focus, to make sure we keep that important and understand that has to be our difference maker.”
It’s all about connecting as a group.
According to Smart, many were the days this summer when the Bulldogs gave up football time. Workouts would be suspended to give players more time with each other, learning from each other, becoming better leaders.
“It’s beginning to pay off as we see it here in the summer with guys leading, guys getting in front of the group and leading skill sessions and being very active,” Smart said. “The introspection was for us to find maybe a different way to do things and hear a different voice, and we've done that. The weekly meetings that we've had—that we've drawn time away from football—have been incredible, as have the gains we received in players being able to confront each other.”
Smart believes those dividends will pay off.
“It's easy to say the guy's not doing his job, to demand him to do it right, but it's hard—when you have a unified group pulling the same direction—to be the outlier,” he said. “We've tried to make that more difficult through our introspection and through our meetings and through our growth as a team. I'm just excited to see the dividends of that in fall camp, of where we can go and where we can get better.”
