Kirby Smart Reveals Previously Unknown Factor Behind Georgia's 2021 National Championship
With his new book “How ‘Bout Them Dawgs!: The Inside Story of Georgia Football’s 2021 National Championship Season” set to be released on June 1, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart is busy making the media rounds in support of the book. On Monday, Smart joined Steak Shapiro and Sandra Golden on their morning radio show on 92.9 the game in Atlanta to promote the book and during the course of the interview, Smart revealed a new insight behind Georgia’s victory over Alabama in the 2022 National Championship game in Indianapolis.
According to Smart, Georgia’s preparation for the National Championship game rematch against Alabama was enhanced by a phone call the Georgia head coach made to the Michigan coaching staff after Bulldogs defeated the Wolverines 34-11 in the 2021 College Football Playoff Semifinals.
“That was big. That probably gave us the biggest difference in the final game, and it was almost a phone call that didn’t happen,” Smart revealed. “There’s not that long from the semifinal game to the final game, and you’ve got to use your time wisely. A lot of times when you look back and talk to the opposing team you just played, you can gain some kind of insight that they might have had on you. That was a key ingredient, talking to them. They had talked to Alabama who had just beaten us in the SEC Championship. They wanted information from Alabama, so some of the information we gathered from Michigan came from information that they gathered from Alabama. It was very unique to hear that perspective, and they gave us a little bit extra incentive and motivation on some things that Alabama had said about us. Of course, I was able to parlay that into motivation for our guys.”
Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart placed a call to the Michigan coaching staff after the Bulldogs defeated Michigan in the 2021 CFP Semifinals to augment their preparation for the National Championship game against Alabama.
Smart explained that the most valuable insight the Bulldogs gained from the conversation with the Michigan coaching staff was the belief held by Alabama and Michigan that Georgia’s players were not well conditioned and were, thus, vulnerable to being worn out as the game progressed. Smart further revealed that the Georgia coaches and players alike took on the challenge of improving the team’s conditioning in the 10-day span between the Orange Bowl victory over Michigan and the National Championship game against Alabama.
“Yeah, that was basically the gist of it,” said Smart. “A lot of people don’t think you can do a whole lot in 10 days, but at the end of the year, there’s a lot of programs that are like, ‘We’re not going to hit. We’re not going to do this.’ You’re a long way into the season so you cut back, but we saw this as an opportunity to crank up a little bit and do a little more with certain guys that needed it. I thought it really made a difference.”
Smart also indicated that the fact the information came from the perspective of another team and not Georgia’s coaching staff served to amplify the message to his team.
“It didn’t matter what Michigan told us if our kids didn’t buy into it,” Smart explained. “The kids bought into it more because they heard it from a reliable source than if it had just come from me. That part really helped, and we had about five or six guys that were getting up at about 5:30, 6:00, 7:00 in the morning and ran extra those 10 days. The conditioning level in the National Championship Game was a piece that really helped us.”
Ultimately, those efforts paid off as Georgia outscored Alabama 20-9 in the decisive fourth quarter of the National Championship game, en route to the program’s first national title in 41 seasons.
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