Every so often a new story comes out that shows just how impressive of a coach Kirby Smart is. Whether it's a locker room moment before Georgia plays a big game or an incident from practice that stands out, it is really exciting to see some of the things that Smart does to motivate his team to improve their performance.
Another one of those stories was just shared by former running back Elijah Holyfield, and this is as good as it gets.
Kirby's the man. #holyfieldwarrior #Boxing #WWE #WWENXT pic.twitter.com/CYY3o3HAGz
— Elijah Holyfield (@EH_taught_me) February 15, 2026
Electric Kirby Smart story shows how great of a motivator he is
Holyfield was a running back early in Smart's tenure at Georgia. He began his career with the Bulldogs in 2016 and spent three years with the porgram before heading to the NFL.
Holyfield recently told a story about Smart that occurred in one of the first practices of his career. He shared that the first couple runs he had in this practice he chose to bounce to the outside. Smart apparently grew increasingly annoyed that he was doing this, so he called Holyfield out by saying he was soft for not running in the middle of the defense.
Holyfield took that personally, so he preceeded to run every play from then on through the middle of the defense. And in Holyfield's words he tried to run everyone over that got in his way.
At the end of practice Smart approached Holyfield again and made another comment about how he wouldn't have been able to run him over. He made this comment with a smile on his face which told Holyfield that his earlier comments were only meant to motivate him. And clearly it worked.
It's always great when these stories are shared about Smart because it gives fans an inside perspective about what goes on in the program. And in this case it showed the lengths Smart will go to make a player practice as hard as possible.