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Kirby Smart on LSU's lack of SEC title experience: A big game is a big game

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•11/28/22
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Steve Limentani/ISI Photos/Getty Images

For a Georgia team chasing perfection, every game is a massive one in their quest for a second straight National Championship and a 15-0 record. So these Bulldogs are no strangers to the spotlight. The majority of the major contributors were starters or rotation players on last year’s title team, so the pedigree is there. But for LSU, nearly all of the pieces off their own 15-0 team in 2019 are gone. Including, above all, the coaching staff.

It’s a brand new era for the Tigers, and this is the first game on this sort of level for Brian Kelly since taking the job last offseason. On the other hand, Kirby Smart is an SEC Title Game veteran, having coached Georgia to four of the last five titles, though he only won in 2017.

But, the Dawgs are the clear and heavy favorites this coming Saturday as the two face off in Georgia’s backyard at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz stadium. So one reporter asked Kirby Smart if his and the team’s extra experience in big-time games will help them vs. LSU. To which Smart dismissed any such ideas.

Here was his full response:

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“Well, I think it’s important to have any kind of experience. It’s not about this game. It’s big-game experience. When you play in the conference that we both play in, there’s been no shortage of big games for either team. When you look at them opening up, getting to play Florida State early in the year like they did, what a huge game that was. The Alabama game for them. Florida. You go through all these teams you play, and they’re all big.

“Do I think experience matters? Yes. Big-game experience matters? Yes. Do both these teams have it? Yes. Playing SEC championship games before, I don’t know that that experience… A big game is a big game.”

Sure, experience in the spotlight matters, and even helps in a big game like this. But Smart believes LSU has already battled in and won a number of big games already this year. For both teams, Saturday is just one more huge opportunity.