Kirby Smart explains reason behind week-to-week captains, leadership council

Although some teams in college football name captains for a whole season, Georgia opts to name new ones week-to-week. Kirby Smart explained why on Monday.

Smart said a few factors go into who gets the nods as captains, including who the game is against. However, that doesn’t mean those players can’t be leaders for the game. He expects others to step up even though they don’t get the “captain” designation.

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“We pick game captains by week and it usually has to do with who we think can infect the team and who, maybe, that week, has to have the best leadership role,” Smart said. “We played South Carolina and Channing Tindall was a captain because he was from South Carolina and it would mean more for him, being from that state. There’s no rhyme or reason. It usually has something do with who do the coaching staff, strength staff, player development staff think will impact that game the most?

“Everybody’s a leader every game. You’ve got a right to say whatever you feel like saying. It usually comes from the first game, offseason workouts in camp. Who was the guy that everybody could count on to be there that day and you’re practicing for the 15th time? We don’t base it on a whole lot early. We base it on the fact that you’re a good leader and everybody has an opportunity to lead.”

Smart also discussed the leadership council at Georgia, something the Bulldogs have done for much of his tenure. However, he hasn’t put one together recently, and Smart again said he doesn’t want make one singular group seem like the only leaders.

“We’ve done it every year we’ve been here, but we didn’t do it since the Cincinnati game,” Smart said. “Our skull sessions have been the emphasis and spending time with each other and kind of all sharing in that responsibility and not making it like it’s an isolated group. I still allow leaders to make some decisions and we have guys that we kind of consider that, but it’s not a designated ‘leadership council.'”