Georgia football is no longer the program where the bad thing is expected to happen
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It was probably the same table. A small folding table in the cramped room that on game days is used for the visiting team’s news conference. Ten years ago at that table, the Georgia coach, after barely winning a game in which two of his players tore ACLs, drew blood via a splinter on the table. Two years later, the coach sat at that table and talked about losing the game as well as his star player to another knee injury.
It wasn’t just injuries. For years, the Georgia football program was the one where fans expected something to go wrong. When things were going right, fans wondered what was around the corner. And just when it seemed all would finally stay right … the bad thing happened.
The mojo has changed. You could tell Saturday night by looking at that table.
Carson Beck, the unbeaten starting quarterback, took questions from a horde of reporters as he sat at the table. Georgia teammate Tykee Smith walked by, leaning over the shoulder of a reporter.
“Make sure you tell Carson I’m a big fan,” Smith said, then walked off.
Minutes later, c sat at the table. His agent, Jimmy Sexton, who facilitated Smart’s hire at his alma mater eight years ago, watched a few feet away. Smart’s wife, Mary Beth, and one of their sons sat against the wall as the coach with a team riding a 28-game winning streak with two national championships theorized about what makes this program chug along, now 11-0 after a 38-10 rout of Tennessee.
“I really believe our culture’s the difference,” Smart said. “Everyone will say it’s our players. I really don’t think that it’s just players. We’ve got good players. We’ve got really good players. But I think there’s a lot about our culture that kids buy into, and they stay level-headed. They’re not worried about the streak. Like I said, it’s going to end, and we’re going to start a new one. But for right now, they just keep getting better.”
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