With center Trey Hill out following arthroscopic surgery on both knees, and right guard Ben Cleveland opting out to prepare for the Senior Bowl and the NFL Draft, it was already a given that Georgia’s offensive line would feature a new look for Friday’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl against Cincinnati.

According to sources, the look will be different than what some may have expected.

UGASports has been told that the Bulldogs will go with redshirt freshman Xavier Truss at left tackle, with Jamaree Salyer moving over to left guard. As expected, Warren Ericson will start at center with Justin Shaffer moving over from left guard to right. Redshirt freshman Warren McClendon will remain at right tackle.

Head coach Kirby Smart was asked about any potential changes during Friday’s final press conference, but was purposely coy on what he might do.

“Yeah, we've practiced a lot of combinations there. Trey was out. Trey was already out the last game. That's not something new. We feel like (Sedrick) Van Pran has grown up a lot over this time, and will be able to play some at center, get some work. He's also worked at guard. Warren played last year in this game at guard, played last game at center. Jamari has played a lot at guard last year and also played tackle. Xavier Truss, Broderick Jones—I'm excited to see all those guys go out and play. I completely answered your question" (smiling).

Assuming Salyer does move over to guard, he'll go back to playing his original position after starting all nine games this season at left tackle.

Smart confirmed Friday that running back James Cook has indeed returned home to Florida to be with his family following the death of his father earlier this week.

“He’s not with us. It's really unfortunate . He got the news, I forget what day of the week it was, but he got the news two days ago,” Smart said during the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl’s final press conference. “He woke up to the news that his father had passed. He talked to Del, reached out, and he already had a flight home. He wanted to go home and be with his family, and we certainly understand that and support him.”

The 46-year-old James Cook Sr. died unexpectedly.

As expected, teammates and coaches have already reached out to Cook to offer their condolences and offer help of any kind.

“Everyone handles these kinds of things differently. It is a tough environment for him. All the running backs have reached out to him, spoken with him. I’ve spoken with him a couple of times,” Smart said. “He’s dealing with it the best he can. He appreciates all the support of Dawg Nation and all our fan base. Your heart goes out to him.

“Last year, you remember, he got hurt early in the game against Baylor and didn’t get to finish out the game. He knows he has a lot of football ahead of him, and football is going to be there for a long time. This is a time to be with his family.”

Earlier this week, Smart admitted his Covid-19 has played a larger role within his team than in previous weeks.

On Friday, however, Smart declined to offer any further updates when asked if the Bulldogs would be missing any players because of it.

“I haven’t really addressed that all year, and it’s not something I’m going to start addressing now. The important thing is the healthy and safety of our players. The protocols we have in place are there to protect, not only our players, but Cincinnati’s players,” Smart said. “I respect both conference policies. They have their testing policies they follow; we have our testing policies that we follow. We have followed those to this point. Those that will be able to play will play, and the ones that will not, unfortunately will not be able to play.

“We’ve dealt with this all year, and we don’t disclose this stuff.”

Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell sang a similar tune.

“Same thing. I think the misconception sometimes is, obviously we all have issues with Covid. We're battling through tough times, but the things that happen because of Covid as well, that really add up."

"I don’t know if everybody really understands that,” he said. “It’s kind of like the only thing you think about is Covid, but there are a lot of things that happen on the back end, whether it’s missed practices, guys being not as healthy—and it’s not just their lungs, not just the virus. But we are in the same boat, we leave that to our medical staff. Our travel has been really good, we've been really smart, and they've done a great job here at the hotel."

Fickell continued, "Hopefully, as of now, we won’t have other issues—that as coaches, we can take a couple of deep breaths and go with what we have.”

Yes, Georgia is wearing their black jerseys for the second time this year during Friday’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.

Whose idea it was, however, lent to some good-natured back-and-forth between Smart and game CEO Gary Stokan.

“In regard to the black jerseys, that was probably more Gary's request,” Smart said. “We obliged. Those kids like wearing those. I don't know exactly the whole deal, but I think it has something to do with both teams wearing their home jerseys.”

But is that how it went down?

Stokan said, “Kirby is too kind to me; he’s given me way too much credit. I know the Georgia Bulldogs had the opportunity to wear the uniforms they wanted. I've always professed to coaches and A.D.s in our Kickoff games and bowl games, I just think the field looks great when you have both teams wearing colored uniforms. It looks great on TV and on the field. At the end of the day, both Coach Fickell and Coach Smart made their decisions on their uniforms.”

To which Smart responded, “I guess I should say it was brought to me in a light that it was encouraged to be colored. I'm assuming we both couldn't be in red; therefore, somebody couldn't be in red,” Smart said. “That was the way it was presented to me. It was not a narrative where we had to wear black. It was where we had to wear one of, or two dark colors, and we’ve only got two colors.”

In past years, Smart has typically refrained from offering too much opinion in regard to whether the current college football playoff should feature an expanded field.

That was not the case on Thursday.

“I've always been of the opinion the decisions and the outcomes and the championships and the trophies should be decided on the field. It's harder and harder every year to agree it's decided on the field, because there's somebody arguably that's left out,” Smart said. “Always go back to the year we were in it—Alabama sits at home, doesn't play in an SEC championship game. They're the four-seed. You could argue that, in fact, it may have helped them with one less game. They won a national championship from a four-seed.

"What's to say the fifth seed, sixth seed, or seventh seed doesn't get hot, doesn't play well, doesn't have an opportunity to win? The problem I have is where that clear line leads to what number that is. To say it's just eight, because that's double four—I think you're going to have major issues at nine and 10.”

The way Smart sees it, the playoffs should be taken much further than that.

“I'd just rather go further than eight if we're going to do it. If they did that, somebody within that back five, six, seven, eight is going to win a national championship at some point. That's giving everybody a realistic shot,” Smart said. “At the end of the day, how are all college sports decisions made? They are done on the field, in a championship environment. We're one of the few that hasn't done it that way. It makes it different. I'm sure people can argue just the opposite of that, as well.”