Kirby Smart, UGA Football Are Ready For The Heat

It's going to be a hot Saturday in Athens this upcoming week. After a blazing summer where the Georgia Bulldogs practiced in some of the highest temperatures in the Kirby Smart era, the Dawgs will host Tennessee State this weekend with temperates expected to be in the 90s. According to Smart, his team should be well prepared.

“We've been in the heat all summer," Smart told reporters this week. "We've been in it more than we've been in years past. It's been really one of the hottest camps we've measured in terms of practices. We practiced outside and practiced inside. We measure all the outside ones against previous camps, and it stood out to be probably the hottest camp we've had. So I always worry about our players being acclimated to a game type atmosphere in that heat because you don't ever play games a lot of times. We practice in it and we did get to scrimmage in it. So I'd be interested to see as much about our players as I do about our fans and see if they can handle it."

As far as the fans go, there will be certainly be empty seats across Sanford Stadium. While the season opener is always exciting, the extreme heat and expected blowout game will likely have fans leaving early. Which is fine. However, for the fans who stick around, they'll likely get a good look at a number of younger players. This is a perfect opportunity to some of the young freshmen and second-year players to get their feet wet in a true game environment.

“On the field they’ve got to go out and react to an opponent," Smart said of the younger players. You get to see a reaction of the players, and you get to see growth, confidence, exposure to playing in front of fans. Nobody goes out and just does something phenomenal they haven't done in practice. What we see in practice - we see in games. But maybe the reaction to a play they gave up or they get beat and how they respond to it is what I'm looking for. The response more than the actual event.”

Mistakes happen. That's how players grow. But it's better to make mistakes this weekend against Tennessee State than later this month when the Sooners come to town. The Bulldogs have talented young players up and down the roster who need to develop quickly if they want to play quality minutes in SEC play. And according to Smart, several will have an opportunity to get meaningful snaps this weekend. The Bulldogs will kick off against Tigers at 3:00 PM on Saturday "Between the Hedges" in Sanford Stadium.

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