Kirby Smart Addresses Georgia Football Faithful
Georgia Football head coach, Kirby Smart joined the Georgia Bulldog Pawdcast Tuesday and he addressed not only the Bulldog faithful, but he spoke to how he and his players are handling this time.
Here's everything Smart said during the interview.
Smart on no longer taking things for granted:
"Absolutely. I mean, it's a tough time for all of us. But you don't realize what you got till it's gone sometimes. And you appreciate things a lot more sometimes when they're taken away, and some valuable lessons from this time. And I know everybody's struggling through it."
Smart was then asked what his message is to the Georgia Faithful:
"Well, the biggest thing is, is stay safe and do the right things. Listen, we've all become much more educated. I never thought I would wash my hands this much in my life, but certainly, every time I pass by an opportunity, I do it now. You know, taking care of so social distancing, which we've all been trying to do. I think it's brought a lot to me from a standpoint of learning and educating on this virus. And it's all you can ask, you know, it's tough times, but everybody's got to buy in and do it. And that's the most important thing right now."
Smart on those on the doctors, nurses, and other essential workers on the front lines during these trying times:
"Yeah, absolutely. We can't thank those enough to give us an opportunity to enjoy the lifestyle we have here in this country. And we're very, very fortunate, very fortunate to have people willing to make sacrifices of their family in order to keep things going. And those are the front lines. You know these nurses and doctors and medical staff and so many others keeping the grocery store stocked, I mean, putting themselves at risk and continue to work. It shows their love and passion for our country."
As for what he's telling his players, Smart said it's about getting comfortable being uncomfortable:
"Yeah, we want to rally the troops. We got so many kids dispersed all across the country with our team and we've tried to stay really in good contact with them. I always worry about my guys because you bet sometimes they think they're superhuman, and they think this doesn't affect me and I can overcome. And so we've really tried to educate them on the process. It's not necessarily about you, and just your health. It's all the other people you can affect. And so many of our guys have bought into that, understand that if they're going to exercise, they've got to do that on their own. They can't go in large groups. It's just so unusual for so many of our kids to have to buy into, you know, sitting inside or just getting outside periodically because that's not what they're used to. And it's a change that is tough, getting kind of comfortable being uncomfortable."
As one could imagine, there's some serious backyard ballgames going on at the Smart household:
"Well, they're getting more and more physical by the day. I'll tell you. My newfound respect is for Mary Beth and all these parents that are you know at home with their kids on a daily basis when they get home from school or wherever and I'm not you know, I'm not present as much I'm usually at football 24/7. And, you know, it's amazing how they can't always get along and I always hear about it when I get home and now get to see it live in action. So we've had a few, a few, two or three basketball games that have ended in someone leaving the court a little disgruntled."
Smart was then asked how he's dealing with planning for the unknown:
"Well, it's the day to day deal with a lot that you can't control and that the toughest thing, is planning for something you don't know. Okay, here's what we're given. We know that we're going to return At some point, we don't know when. So how do you plan for that? Because you don't know if you're getting 10 hours a week, eight hours a week, four hours a week, when are you coming back? Are you in school? Are you in physical classes? Are you in online classes? I mean, you know, so little. And by the time this airs, I may know more than I know now. So it's so tough to make plans for something, you don't know what's going to happen. So we're trying to go day by day and really focus on the day and not the future. So we're telling our kids if you worry about yourself today, and you get a little bit better every day, don't worry about the future, they will come back, you will have pasted others because it's not like we're the only ones dealing with this. We're not isolated. Everybody's dealing with it. So who's gonna deal with it the best who's gonna come out on the top end of this deal and say, I got more out of this than my opponent. That's what we're challenging guys."
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