Kirby Smart shares how a history lesson helped motivate Georgia to win the national title

Fans and critics pointed to Georgia’s history against Alabama when making their national title game predictions. But, as it turns out, the Bulldogs used a different history lesson to get motivated for the game.

Who would’ve thought the Aztec Empire would be a big motivator for a football team?

That’s apparently what Georgia talked about before the game. Head coach Kirby Smart said an advisor came in and gave a speech to get the team ready for the showdown. With the help of Lewis Cine, who was also in the press conference, he shared what the speaker talked about.

“He said, ‘Hey, we’re here, we sailed over here, we came on our boats,” Smart said. “We’re burning the boats. And everybody’s heard the burning-boat speech. When they burn the boats those guys are, like, there’s no going back. He gave that speech that we were going to burn the boats and go do what we had to do to win this game.

“And I thought it was very moving because he related it to you belong here. … Where have you been? Look at what you’ve done.”

“Burning the boats” is a metaphor for going forward and not looking back. It goes back to 1519 when Hernán Cortes landed in Veracruz to overtake the Aztecs. He lit the boats on fire as a way to tell his troops they had to win or they wouldn’t have a way home.

Smart said the speaker went on to point to different players to share how they’ve performed and their individual journeys to the national title game.

“He went through a lot of players,” Smart said. “Zamir White, a guy they gave zero chance to live past six months, and he’s playing in a national championship game. James Cook lost his father and didn’t get to play in a bowl game last year. Devonte Wyatt, the road he’s taken. He went through every guy.

“He did a tremendous job messaging to the players that you belong here, and he validated it by saying it 169 workouts, 110 runs. … He went through every step.”

Kirby Smart: ‘We burned the boats and came out fighting’

Smart used the burning boats analogy again during his postgame interview with ESPN’s Molly McGrath. She asked the Georgia alum about the “hunger” he talked about before the game, and that “hunger” continued into the game.

“I saw it at halftime,” Smart said. “There were people that said we weren’t conditioned enough, and that pissed a lot of people off on our sideline, and they went to work. And before we came today, we burned the boats and we came out fighting. I’m proud of these men.”

The motivation obviously worked. Georgia won its first title in 41 years on Monday, a 33-18 win over Alabama in Indianapolis. It was a long time coming, and Bulldogs fans began to celebrate.

It should be quite a party in Athens on Saturday.