Georgia football has officially begun spring ball as Tuesday marked the first day of practice for the Bulldogs. This obviously is creating a lot of excitement in the fanbase because fans will finally get a small taste of football before summer begins and the long wait for the regular season ensues.
There are countless topics fans want to know about heading into Georgia’s spring practices, but one thing everyone wants to know is what Kirby Smart’s expectations are. Thankfully Smart shared what he’s hoping to see from his team with the media on Tuesday.
"Yeah, I want to see the fire. I want to see the passion, the energy," Smart said via 247sports.com. "I want to see who wants to be a good football player, who really cares about this game. They care more about the game than they do about their NIL revenue stream."
Smart wants his team to care
A lot of what Smart shared is the pretty standard mantra that every coach gives. They want their players to work hard, they want them to have a lot of passion and energy, and they want them to care about getting better. Every coach in the country is making this same statement to some capacity, but it was the last thing that Smart said that is very interesting.
NIL is the one thing potentially talked about the most in college football, and it’s clear that athletes want to make as much as they can. And while Smart likely wants that for his players as well, he doesn’t want that to be their main focus.
At the end of the day, making a lot of money is great for the players, but that’s not what wins games, and winning games is the thing that matters most. So Smart wants his players to focus less on the amount of money they’re making and more on improving on the field so Georgia can excel this fall.
This may seem like a very simple opinion, but not every athlete throughout the country thinks this way. There are many players who arguably focus far too much on maximizing their NIL, and it ends up hurting them and their team on the field. This is the last thing Smart wants to see happen at Georgia, so hopefully he is able to get his players to buy in this spring and not care as much about how deep their pockets are.