Kirby Smart cautions hype after Bulldogs' Sugar Bowl victory: 'There's a disease' at Georgia
The best college football coaches not only excel at exploiting opponents, but they are also adept at self-scouting and identifying weaknesses in their own program.
Kirby Smart's diagnosis of the Georgia Bulldogs? There's a "disease." His words.
In the aftermath of Georgia's 26-14 win over Baylor in the Sugar Bowl on Wednesday, a reporter asked about the contributions from underclassmen Zamir White and George Pickens and how that positions the program going forward.
"To be honest with you, the future is only bright if those guys continue to work because there's a disease that creeps in at Georgia where kids believe they're better than they are and they read their own press clippings," he said.
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Smart mentioned that the Bulldogs' team chaplain expressed a similar sentiment in a Bible verse he recited to the team before the game.
"He basically said that when you start reading about yourself and believing your own press clippings is when you start to fall," Smart said. "Those kids that you just mentioned are tremendous players. But they'll only be as good as they can be if they stay as hungry as they are. When they're not hungry, you become average. Some of that, I think, has affected us in the past.
"We've got to find a way in this program to not let that creep in and (to) keep that same hunger you had as a young player. Because we've had it happen to several guys that were really hungry and then they become full."
Georgia could have secured a spot in College Football Playoff with a win in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game but fell to LSU. Slotted in the Sugar Bowl for the second straight season, they did not repeat a letdown as they did last year with a loss to Texas.