Georgia is four practices into its 2025 season, and Kirby Smart's assessment was more blunt than a ball peen hammer. "Long way from good," he told the local media on Tuesday, the "o" in long stretching out like an accordion.
There's a reason for that, of course. Smart estimated half the roster is preparing for their first season at Georgia, arriving either from high school or through the portal. "I asked the guys to stand up at least three spring practices, so this would be their fourth, there was basically nobody standing."
The Stetson Bennett era, for lack of a better term, saw Georgia go 37-3 with two national championships. That gave way to the Carson Beck era, which brought a 24-4 mark with an SEC championship. Beck is now a Miami Hurricane, and the new team is... not ready to play Georgia football.
Good kids? Yes. Talented? It's Georgia, that's a given. But it's a group that, in Smart's estimation, is not ready to practice with the pace, fervor and willingness that Georgia practices. The freshmen, Smart said, are out of shape.
"The older players might have 25 reps in a practice, they might have 20. But they can't sustain their 20 reps throughout practice. They get really tired. There's no lack of effort, and they're talented, but they have a long way to go in terms of learning what to do," he said. "... There's not a guy out there just flourishing."
Then, there's a group of players -- no names were named -- that may or may not physically make it through a practice, but aren't mentally and emotionally prepared to handle a Georgia practice.
"We have a lot of guys that put their hands up, they're offended when you coach them. We've had multiple NFL coaches come through here, go to practice and they talk about how their players love to be coached, they love to be given a nugget, a technique that might help them play longer. Some of our guys are offended by it," Smart said. "'You're coaching me hard? You're telling me I've got to play with effort?' Some of them, I guess, have never been held to that standard. That standard's not going to change here."
Smart was then asked if he's seen an uptick of players not taking to coaching in recent years. Are players that are getting paychecks to play college football less coachable because they think they've arrived?
"It's picking the right people to coach," Smart answered. "Kids that want to be coached don't care what they make. Guys in the National Football League make more than these guys, they still want to be coached.
"I think they'll get there. If they won't, somebody else will be in their spot."