Skip to main content
Dawgs Daily

Georgia Football Sends Bold Message Before Showdown with Arkansas

Dean Legge|
Georgia Football players celebrate against Tennessee State.
Georgia Football players celebrate against Tennessee State. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In this story:

Georgia Bulldogs

FAYETTEVILLE - Georgia Football released its hype video for Kirby Smart’s No. 2 Bulldogs’ fight with the Arkansas Razorbacks late Friday night.

The Bulldogs are considered heavy favorites to win the program’s 2026 SEC opener, which kicks off at Noon on ABC from Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.

“The foundation of the program is built on the backs of those who came before us,” former Georgia DB Richard LeCounte says at the start of the video. “A group of men that put team before themselves.”

The Bulldogs are a massive favorites over the Hogs, but this is the first time Georgia has played a road game this season - and the first true road game for the Bulldogs since drilling Mississippi State in early November 2025.

Smart said earlier this week that one of the challenges for UGA was gathering data about new Arkansas players. Arkansas coach Ryan Silverfield has north of 60 new players on the Hogs’ roster this season - many of them making their way from Memphis, which was Silverfield’s previous stop.

“A lot of them came from Memphis,” Smart said earlier this week. “Everybody we play - every team we play has a ton of turnover. That's like the norm.”

Smart said he was more concerned with what his Bulldogs would look like on Saturday than worrying too much about the Razorbacks.

“So the evaluation is of our team,” he said. “That's what I spend my time worrying about is our team. You spend too much time worrying about their team, and you won't have a good team. So I'm a lot more worried about what we do than what they do.”

Arkansas had a quick turnaround a week ago after playing a late-night game at Utah. The early local kickoff makes things even more challenging for the Hogs, but Smart said it is something that has to be navigated.

“It's to each his own in terms of the way you maneuver the week and how you manage the week from a standpoint of recovery,” he said. “You have to navigate that. (It is) certainly challenging, and I wouldn't like it either. It's a tough situation to be in.”

But the Hogs will be playing at home - perhaps in front of a disgruntled fanbase - against Georgia. Smart said he was not sure if his team would face adversity this week or not, but he suspects it is coming, and he wants to get his team ready for it.

“I don't know if I'd say anticipating adversity. I think adversity - I think you have to as a coach anticipate adversity, because I don't know when it's coming,” he said. “I have no control over when it's coming. Nor do you, nor do the players. So, to not anticipate it would be failure. We try to anticipate it. We try to create it every day in our practices in some kind of way.”

Then this from the 11th-year head coach:

“You know, you'll learn a lot about them if they have adversity,” Smart said.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Dean Legge
DEAN LEGGE

After two-plus decades of covering the Georgia Bulldogs and the SEC, Dean Legge is one of the definitive voices in Athens and beyond. Legge has authored two books - DAWGSTRUCTION and DOUBLE DAWGS - with each chronicling Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs' run to national titles in 2021 and 2022. Legge has been a Heisman Trophy voter since 2005 and a Biletnikoff Award voter since 2009. He’s covered SEC Championships, Peach Bowls, Orange Bowls, Sugar Bowls, the Rose Bowl Game, College Football Playoff National Championship Games, the NCAA Tournament, the College World Series as well as a slew of college football, basketball and baseball games. Legge graduated from Coker College in 1999 with a degree in Political Science. He played both tennis and basketball for the Cobras. After graduating, Legge completed his academic career at the University of Georgia where he earned a Master of Public Administration from the School of Public and International Affairs in 2001. In 2008, Legge was elected President of the Coker College Alumni Association. He served on the Board of Trustees at Coker from 2009 to 2017 and was a member of the Executive Committee, Student Services and Enrollment Committee and Athletic Committee in that time. Legge is a native of Tucker, Georgia.

Share on XFollow Dawg_Post