The wait is over for the Bulldogs

The waiting is finally over.

It has been three-and-a-half months since Georgia's last practice. That will change on Thursday when the Bulldogs hit the field for the first practice of preseason camp.

In his eighth year at the helm in Athens, Kirby Smart said he still gets excited the day before camp opens. In speaking with reporters on Wednesday Smart noted that summers are much different now than they were in his playing days.

"The NCAA has allowed you to do so much more in the summer," Smart said. "I was just telling our players. It's so different. We didn't see our coaches when we were here in the summer. We had testing when we got back. It was the first day freshmen reported was today. Now, we had 19 kids here in the spring. We had four or five show up in the summer, but they've even done workouts. It's not like the buildup of an NFL training camp where you haven't seen guys. We've seen our guys. They're here. They work out every day."

Smart noted the importance of separating the different segments of the year. The staff tries to make a "clear delineation" between the end of summer workouts and the beginning of camp.

The summer workouts mainly center around staying healthy and conditioning. Smart said the team is in relatively good shape as far as injuries go.

Smart also feels good about where the Bulldogs are in terms of their conditioning. The past month has seen the team really take it up a notch in terms of conditioning work in the summer heat.

But that's all behind the team now. Thursday marks the beginning of the fall, a season that Smart and the Bulldogs hope will end with their third straight national championship.

What goals are out there for training camp to make that dream a reality?

"The biggest focus for us in training camp is physical and mental toughness. That's why we do training camp," Smart said. "We try to expose our guys to a lot of scheme, a lot of getting to know each other, moving in to one central location and really just focusing in on ourselves. I think the difference in the two teams from the last two years is they connected well in training camp, and that'll be a goal in this training camp: to see how well we connect and how well we compete."