Coach Kirby Smart's Georgia Bulldogs resumed their dominant ways in Week 9 action, blanking coach Jon Sumrall's Florida Gators 24-0 in the first half and rolling to a 27-8 win on a day when they made the Vegas oddsmakers look good. The ‘Dawgs' defense also performed well as NFL Draft candidate KJ Bolden started and returned from injury.
Smart shared his thoughts on the chaos of the SEC, which one reporter dubbed “carnage.”
“Yeah, it does seem different, I've asked several coaches about it, and we all have speculation, I don't want to get judgment on what it is. Everybody's practicing less, but everybody's getting injured more, and it doesn't make sense, it doesn't add up. We're not at the point of the ninth game yet…So I don't have a good answer for that, I do think that, and there was a big decision made (with roster additions); it's going to be interesting as this thing goes down the stretch.
“I think about the teams we had in '21 and '22, how physical they are and how they practiced, and like, we can't even get close to that now. Is it…I don't know, is it different culture that guys don't want to as much, they were definitely hungries, because there was more motivation to make it.
Article Continues Below“A lot of these guys, honestly, they make more than I made til I was 40, so it's just a different day and age,” the Georgia coach concluded.
Florida made a QB decision before the game that didn't pay off in a victory as the Bulldogs dominated. Smart's team isn't up to his usual championship standards, in his eyes, but they thoroughly outclassed the Gators on a day when the Bulldogs could seemingly do no wrong.