The Georgia Bulldogs have their opening College Football Playoff game coming up against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day. Head coach Kirby Smart has coached many big games before this.
Here’s what he said to the press about preparing for this game.
Comparing and contrasting Notre Dame from the other teams he’s faced in the postseason in the past:
“Yeah, that’s a tough one because I don’t really remember the other ones. You know, I don’t remember them as a team. The games obviously stand out, one score, fourth quarter, really physical games. The physicality I see when I watch Notre Dame play is pretty incredible on both lines of scrimmage. The way they play, the style of play they have. So I mean comparing those teams is hard for me because there’s so many years in between, but this is a really good, solid, fundamentally sound, don’t beat themselves, play good defense, great defense, and really physical on the lines of scrimmage and they’ve got a really athletic quarterback. So there’s a reason why that they’re at the point the season they’re at.”
On the challenges of navigating the portal schedule with preparing for the playoffs:
“Yeah, it’s becoming the new norm. You know, December is absolutely just tough. I don’t know a good way of saying it. I wouldn’t say it’s unbearable. I wouldn’t say that it’s unfair. There’s a lot of words you can use for it. It’s just not probably the best thing for the college football game.
Individually, you can make a case, you know, it’s good for some players, it’s good for some teams, it’s