Arian Smith provides update on his health entering 2023 season

The Georgia Bulldogs’ speedy wideout Arian Smith has had a rough few years in the program as he’s dealt with many injuries. However, this season is different for the redshirt junior wide receiver.

Entering into the Bulldogs fall camp this year, Smith has been a healthy participant throughout, which bodes well for the likelihood that he will be a vital part of the Bulldogs’ offense in 2023. After Thursday’s practice, Smith provided some insight into how he has been feeling thus far and what has been driving him to excel this offseason.

“Playing a sport, you’re never gonna feel 100 percent. So I mean, I feel good. I feel way better than last year at this point,” said Smith. “But I’m knowing this is the best, like yesterday, the best I was going to feel throughout camp because it’s the first day. So I’m prepared for injuries, little, small injuries, and stuff like that. Feel like I feel great. I feel good.

“Hunger. I’m hungry. What I did in the past don’t mean nothing to me right now. I’m still trying to get ready for this season and show what I can do this season. But what I did last season don’t really mean nothing. So just the hunger, I’ll say, because I haven’t played much.”

Over the past four seasons, Smith has played in just 16 games, racking up 12 catches for 386 yards and four touchdowns. This season, Smith will attempt to outperform his career stats as one of the primary options for the Bulldogs alongside tight end Brock Bowers and fellow wideout Ladd McConkey. And with him back and feeling better than he has, fans of other programs should be weary as he adds another layer of danger to an already explosive offense.

Kirby Smart downplays concerns about Georgia’s strength of schedule

While the Bulldogs’ roster is looking stronger than ever, there have been some questions surrounding the strength of Georgia’s schedule, at least from the outside. And head coach Kirby Smart has heard enough.

As the defending two-time national champions, the Bulldogs should be playing the best of the best — instead, they’re expected to cruise to the College Football Playoff for the third consecutive season.

“All we can do is go out and try to schedule the best we can, and when we scheduled the game with Oklahoma, we were trying to do that,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. “We were trying to create this identity that we wanted to play our conference schedule, we wanted to play Georgia Tech and we wanted to play others. We lost out on that because of a realignment, adding teams to the conference, and that just is what it is.

“I certainly don’t concern myself with the thoughts of College Football Playoff committee because I don’t have any control over it.”

The main reason Georgia’s strength of schedule is fairly easy compared to its conference counterparts is that the Bulldogs don’t play any marquee non-conference games.