Most Georgia football fans would assume that preparing for a game against Marshall would be pretty simple. The Bulldogs have the far better athletes, so surely they can just show up and win this game with ease, right?
Kirby Smart would probably throw up if he ever heard anyone inside the program say that.
Smart knows the importance of every game and that any team can sneak up on them at any given moment if they aren’t prepared. So he will not let his team take a game off, no matter how much Georgia is favored to win by.
In light of this, Smart was asked about the most difficult thing that’s come up in their preparations for Marshall, and he discussed how the amount of turnover and transfers in their program this offseason has been throwing them for a loop.
“I don't know that I've ever seen a roster that when we write on the depth chart 'transfer', it's three-deep transfer, four-deep transfer, three-deep transfer in all these spots. A lot of transfers,” Smart shared via 247Sports.com. “But, again, it'll be probably more of an adjustment from the kickoff to the first quarter than most games, but it'll also be about us."
Kirby Smart and Georgia are having issues preparing for Marshall
Smart shared in the above quote that the amount of transfers Marshall has brought in this offseason is something he has never seen before. On top of that, Marshall has a brand new head coach as well as a coaching staff that is from all over the place. All of these new faces and turnover makes it impossible for Smart to know what Marshall plans to do on Saturday in Athens.
Georgia at the end of the day has the far better players, so they should still win this game by a wide margin, but this uncertainty is something to monitor. Based on Smart’s response, it sounds like they aren’t 100 percent sure how Marshall is going to attack them and what style they are going to play with. So it’s pretty easy to see why not knowing exactly what Marshall is going to do is driving Smart crazy.
So make sure to keep this in mind when Georgia’s game against Marshall begins on Saturday, because there’s a real chance Marshall is able to start strong while Georgia works to get their feet under them and understand how Marshall wants to play.