Georgia football hosted legendary NFL head coach Jon Gruden last Friday during their second fall camp practice. Visitors don't get much bigger than Gruden because he is one of the most well known and respected football minds in the history of the sport.
Gruden reportedly spoke with the team after practice on Friday, and the message he shared sounds eerily similar to the new mantra Kirby Smart has pushed on his team this season.
“Passion, fire, energy. I’m looking for it. I always look for those things,” Gruden shared via on3.com. “I had the scouts look for it. I wanted to sign players that had it; all my coaches had to have it.”
Jon Gruden reinforces Kirby Smart's 2025 mantra
When Smart spoke with the media before Georgia's first fall camp practice last Thursday, there was one message he kept repeating. This message had to do with the passion, fire and energy he is looking to get out of his team this season.
These three qualities are things Gruden said he was always looking for when he was a head coach. Gruden shared that it was a requirement for every player and coach on his team to have passion, fire and energy, and if they didn't have it then Gruden didn't want them on his team.
These qualities are something that has defined Georgia football during Smart's tenure in Athens. It however has always just been an unwritten rule that Georgia's player and coaches need to have these qualities if they are going to succeed at Georgia.
But Smart decided to aggressively push these three qualities on his team this season to the point where it is UGA's new mantra for the year. And Gruden stating how important all three were to him in the NFL should make Georgia's player and coaches buy into Smart's message even more.