One of the biggest talking points throughout all of college football is Spring Games. Some teams are beginning to question if it makes sense to continue putting on their Spring Game in fear of other teams tampering with their good players. And some have even gone as far as to cancel their spring game altogether.
Georgia football on the other hand has not cancelled their Spring Game. In fact, they announced a few weeks ago that their Spring Game this year will be on April 12. But Kirby Smart said something interesting on Tuesday surrounding this game, and it doesn’t sound like a guarantee the game will happen.
"Every year, we make that decision based on where we are," Smart shared via 247sports.com. "We haven't even practiced yet, so it would be remiss if I said 100 percent, I'm dead-set, we're having a spring game. I leave every option open. That's my 15th practice. So we can do what we want to do... I like spring games. I want to have a spring game because it allows kids to play that don't typically get to play. You sometimes allow fans to enjoy an experience in Athens that they normally wouldn't get, but I'm not ready to say that it's 100 percent."
Kirby Smart not guaranteeing the Spring Game happens
Smart very clearly states that there isn’t a 100 percent chance the Spring Game happens this year. Now that doesn’t mean it’s likely to be cancelled, but he is leaving the door open for that decision to be made.
But why would Georgia ever cancel the game if they aren’t worried about other teams tampering with their roster?
One example Smart shared later was Kentucky, who cancelled their Spring Game one year because they didn’t have any healthy defensive lineman. After doing some research, Michigan State has made that same decision in the past as well.
If Georgia doesn’t have any available players at a position, then it would obviously make sense to cancel the game. However, the year Michigan State did that they did still hold a public practice in their stadium, so that is something UGA could do if it gets to that point.
As it stands today, it doesn’t seem like there’s any real threat of the Spring Game being cancelled. But it’s also not a guarantee to happen either, so hopefully Smart and his staff see how much Georgia fans care about this game so they decide to keep going forward with it every year.