The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coach focused on defining ‘what our team DNA is’
Effort aims to make Bulldogs better team and better people.
ATHENS — Kirby Smart is rocking some new terminology. He used it a lot Tuesday when meeting remotely with reporters in advance of the Georgia’s fast-approaching spring football practice. He used terms like “culture,” “team DNA” and “winning between the ears.”
It’s all part of an initiative Smart calls “team programming,” and the sixth-year coach believes it will help develop the Bulldogs into not just one of the better football teams in the country, but some of the better people as well.
Smart said it’s all part of the “total-person concept” that UGA has embraced in the last year amid a pandemic that included a national whirlwind of social change.
“Team programming has been really big for us this offseason,” Smart said Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve started having some ‘skull sessions,’ 15-, 20-minute, incremental (meetings) that we’ve been doing with our players in small groups. Small groups work a lot better, obviously, during a pandemic. But the guys have really felt a connection as we try to define what our team DNA is. We’ve been really intentional about that.”
A grass-roots effort started by players and coaches last summer is being organized now by Courtney Gay, who was hired in December as Georgia’s new assistant athletic director for diversity, equity and inclusion. Her position was created as a result of the financial gift donated by NFL quarterback Matthew Stafford and his wife, Kelly, both
UGA alums. Since coming on board, Gay has brought in dynamic speakers and social experts to educate and inspire Georgia players toward initiating social change themselves.
“She’s done a tremendous job, and that has helped us move this needle forward on social issues that have occurred in the past,” Smart said. “This last year, it all became more relevant for our team.”
Last summer, Georgia football players created a group called “Dawgs for Pups” to figure out ways to impact the local community and initiate positive change. Supervised by receivers coach Cortez Hankton and running backs coach Dell Mcgee, last fall they raised more than $100,000 to provide wireless Internet access for Clarke County School District students, collected almost 30,000 pounds of food in a school-snacks drive, solicited the donations for 437 coats to give away in November and bought Christmas gifts for 100 local families in December.
“It’s something we’re extremely proud about,” said Hankton, who is entering his fourth season with the Bulldogs. “Our guys have taken an awesome approach and really embraced serving this community.”
Hankton said the group is brainstorming for more initiatives to unveil this spring.