With less than a week to go before Friday’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl against Cincinnati (noon, ESPN), Kirby Smart is crossing his fingers that a season-long foe won't bite his Bulldogs before the two teams kickoff: Covid 19.

During a recent interview, Smart confirmed a report by UGASports that his team has had more positive tests in recent weeks than those of previous months. But no indication has been given regarding how many players might be affected for the game.

Although there's been no indication that the Peach Bowl itself might be in any sort of jeopardy, Smart just wants this one final week of testing to go off without a hitch.

“We have three tests to clear. So, one would be Saturday. But we have two more tests to clear, which will be Monday and Wednesday,” Smart said. “We’re following our conference protocol, just like they’re following their conference protocol. And everyone agreed to stick with their protocol throughout the year.”

Smart admitted getting through the next four days won't be easy.

After acknowledging Saturday that four players—offensive lineman Ben Cleveland, linebacker Monty Rice, cornerback Eric Stokes, and tight end Tre McKitty—have already opted out of the game, Smart knows any more absences could make the burden on younger players, filling in, even heavier.

“You can imagine we’re on pins and needles. Because anybody who hits on any of those three testing cycles would be out. And the bigger concern is the contact tracing, in which they may knock out more guys,” Smart said. “Anybody at this time wouldn’t clear contract tracing or Covid. It's an obvious concern for both teams, and we've dealt with it all year. But our numbers have gone up in the last two or three weeks, in terms of hitting some players.

“We'd gone a long time in not losing anybody. We've had some guys we've had to quarantine and that we've lost, and we're fighting to get every one of them back. The week we would have played Vandy, we'd have had one or two. The next week we'd have had one or two. We've been able to get those guys back, but we know at this point going forward, there's no getting anybody back. So if it’s the wrong position from a depth standpoint, it could really attack your team.”

No, Smart does not have Covid-19.

But if he did, and was forced to miss the Peach Bowl, who would step in?

“Yeah, we have protocol in place. And every time I test, it's a concern of mine,” Smart said. “I’m not going to share that exact plan, because it hasn’t had to come to fruition. But we've been through it and talked about it, and have things available for Skype meetings, for Zoom meetings, to sit in team meetings, to be in practice by way of Zoom meetings, to have someone be in charge of game day decisions. Pretty much everybody in the country has that now.”

Just because the Bulldogs didn't make the College Football Playoffs, Smart disagreed wholeheartedly with the notion that winning the Chick-fil-A Bowl would not be a big deal.

On the contrary.

“I think everybody tries to spin the bowl game as building momentum, and that’s great. One hundred percent, it's an opportunity to build momentum. Everybody wants to talk about 2021 anyway—that’s all anybody wants to talk about once you're not in the final four, the playoffs,” Smart said. “It's going to be gloom and doom. It’s going to be way up there if you win, and way down there if you lose—although the truth, as they always say, resides somewhere in the middle.”

But Smart’s reasons for wanting to win go much deeper than that.

Even with some players opting out, getting a victory over Cincinnati, to cap what's been a long and agonizing year, would mean a lot for many different reasons.

“What I want to do is play good, sound football. I want our seniors in this game to go out on top. I want the guys who have dedicated five, sometimes four years to the program, in cases three years to our program—I want them to go out on top, because they've worked so hard to do that,” Smart said.

“We want to play our best game, so we’re not going out to audition for next year, although some will get their first significant playing time. It’s really about these seniors and the guys who have invested so much, and finishing things off the right way.

“At the end of the day, it’s about how you finish things off that you started.”

Smart on youngsters getting a chance to play and more experience on a bigger stage: “Yeah, I’d agree with that statement about guys getting that opportunity to step up and play. I don't really know what you're asking, other than do guys get a better opportunity to play in bowl games? Yes, a lot of guys get an opportunity in bowl games, because sometimes you have postseason injuries, sometimes you have first-round picks that choose not to play. I mean, for whatever reason, you have attrition, right? And other guys get an opportunity to play. We certainly had a lot of that. But a lot of those choices last year were not their own. A lot of those choices last year were our choices. So we had two first-rounders that chose not to play. But we had some other guys that couldn’t play.”

Smart on Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ritter: “He’s a lot better runner than you give him credit for. He covers a lot of ground and he makes the right decision a lot. When you're playing a guy who's played as much football as he has, he is seen it before. We have been over this before in terms of experienced quarterbacks—they don't make mistakes. He pulls the ball when he needs to pull it; he makes guys miss on the perimeter. He takes off and scrambles for a 50-yard touchdown run. You can't really account for that as a defensive coordinator when you're trying to account for all the weapons they have. He’s just a really, really good football player.”