Kirby Smart on CFP prep: "We have a really solid plan"

Being prepared is always important. It does not matter if you’re talking about a regular season game or the College Football Playoffs in the Orange Bowl.

If you want to succeed, you’d best have a plan to have your team as primed and ready as possible for success.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart believes that he does.

"There is a huge significance in every game. Just making sure that we are clear on that because I know there are people that think the bowl games don't matter, but they matter,” Smart said. “Certainly, being in the CFP heightens the attention to it. We have a really solid plan.”

According to Smart that plan entails building up each day in practice before reaching a crescendo on game day.

That’s what the Bulldogs are attempting to do. Georgia will continue working out in Athens before breaking for Christmas. The team will fly to Miami on the afternoon of Dec. 26.

“I was able to be a part of that CFP process while at Alabama, was able to do it here and we feel really comfortable with the prep,” Smart said. “We build up to a point, and then we have a Christmas break, and then we have a game week at the location.”

Once in Miami, the Bulldogs will hold three practices at Barry University in Miami leading up to the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium on New Year’s Eve (7:30., ESPN).

“When we go to the location, we are honed in and we are focused, just like we would be for a bowl game,” Smart said. “I think the intensity of the practice and the awareness of the situation of your leaders on your team is probably the biggest difference. People are really locked in and focused with an attention to detail, just like they should be for a bowl game.”

Otherwise, Smart said the key will be to treat the CFP just like any other game.

“You don't treat things differently, but our guys are aware of that and you prepare in a very similar fashion in terms of getting ready,” Smart said. “Right now, we are actually trying to get our team better. We’re trying to get our twos and threes as many reps as possible because it is like an extra spring practice. I mean we will have 14-15 practices before we play and that is literally an extra spring practice."