Kirby Smart didn't get into specifics during Sunday’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Zoom call, regarding how many of his players may opt out of the New Year’s Day game against Cincinnati.
He wishes he knew.
"I don't completely know the answer to that yet. We don’t know exactly who's going to be in and who's going to be out,” Smart said. “There’s still water under the bridge in terms of kids making decisions, and we’ve got several seniors with draft prospects; we’ve also got juniors with draft prospects who are having to make decisions.”
Last week, UGASports broke the news that six Senior Bowl-bound members—Ben Cleveland, D.J. Daniel, Mark Webb, Monty Rice, Richard LeCounte, and Tre’ McKitty—were expected to opt out, while others like junior cornerback Eric Stokes, were also considering leaving early to start preparing for the NFL Draft.
“What I've encouraged them to do is to be thorough, make sure they get good information and make the best decision—but in a timely manner so we can prepare and get ourselves ready. We want to get ready as soon as we can for Cincinnati. Seeing them play last night let me know right now, we’ve got a lot of preparation to do to get ready,” Smart said. “I don't know who will be in and who will be out yet. But the guys who are out there are the ones we're going to coach and get ready to play."
For the ones who do suit up, Smart said his Bulldogs (7-2) will have their collective hands full with the Bearcats, who earned the spot in the Peach Bowl as the highest-ranked team (No. 8) from the Group of Five.
“Group of Five, Power Five—all those languages—that’s for you guys,” Smart said. “My language is football, and they’ve got a good football team.”
Bearcat head coach Luke Fickell—formerly the defensive coordinator at Ohio State—would like to agree.
Cincinnati won the American Athletic Conference, capped by Saturday night’s 27-24 win over Tulsa in the league championship game, and was ranked as high as No. 7 this year in the CFP poll.
But as Group Five teams have found out since the current CFP format has been in place, getting the committee to bump them ahead of their Power 5 brethren has so far been a futile chore.
“First of all, I think it's disappointing, but I'm not disappointed. I know our kids aren't disappointed—'disappointing' meaning the sheer fact you'd love an opportunity for a shot at the title. So would Georgia. So would Texas A&M,” Fickell said. “The reality is, there are only four who are going to get that opportunity. We don't happen to be one of them. We have to look at it as, we're excited about what we have. This is going to be an incredible opportunity, an incredible challenge for us. I think that's what our kids thrive on and enjoy the most.”
Smart hopes that lessons learned from his team’s past two Sugar Bowl victories will serve his Bulldogs well against the Bearcats.
Two years ago, against Texas, players—and perhaps coaches to an extent—didn't take the Longhorns seriously. As a result, Georgia lost, 28-21. Last season, a different mindset and more focus resulted in an easy 26-14 win.
“We’ve had success in bowls, and we’ve had some failures in games. We've won a Sugar Bowl and we've lost a Sugar Bowl, and those stick out in the mind, due to the approach each team took to those games," Smart said.
"It was so important to so many, in terms of the Baylor Sugar Bowl, and the way the kids approached it, from the Texas Sugar Bowl when it wasn’t that way. Everybody didn’t approach the game the same way, and we learned a valuable lesson as a staff that it’s not necessarily who you go to play, but what their mindset is when you go to play a bowl game.”
But Smart believes his Bulldogs will be ready.
“You learn that you prepare the right way. When we were preparing for Missouri, nobody expected us to play very well, because they thought our head would be in the wrong place. And we played pretty well,” Smart said. “So we prepare regardless of who the opponent is. That’s the way you have to approach it, so you have a little level of consistency when you get ready to play.”
