Nakobe Dean reveals what Kirby Smart refusing Gatorade bath meant to Georgia locker room

After a huge victory, a Gatorade bath is customary in the sport of football. However, Kirby Smart refused the sacred tradition after Georgia defeated Michigan in the Orange Bowl to advance to the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship.

Evidently, Smart didn’t want to celebrate until the job was finished. The job of end the Bulldogs’ long drought without a national championship.

The gesture stuck with Georgia players after the victory. Prior to Monday’s championship game, Bulldogs linebacker Nakobe Dean revealed what Smart refusing the Gatorade bath meant to the locker room.

“I feel like Coach Smart’s mindset is kind of reciprocated in a lot of the older guys as far as we won the game last week, but it means nothing if we don’t get the job done. That’s exactly how I feel also,” stated Dean. “It was cool that that we were able to win the Orange Bowl, but it was still closer to playing in this big one. Last week and the week before that, we just emphasized it being a one-game season against Michigan, one game season. Because you lose you go home. You win you get more time together.

“And now it’s what it is. It’s a one-game season. And we’re all looking to win, basically our goal that we set back in January.”

It would’ve been an awesome sight to see Smart doused in Gatorade on the field in Miami. However, seeing the Georgia coach throw oranges into the crowd following victory was still a pretty great consolation prize.

If Georgia defeats Alabama on Monday, expect Smart to get a Gatorade bath for the ages in Indianapolis.

Smart on Georgia national title drought: ‘I can’t feel it, I can’t say that I feel it.’

Kirby Smart has already had great success at Georgia. However, the Bulldogs coach can become immortalized if he can become the man who ends the program’s long, painful national title drought.

Smart came close before, prior to Nick Saban making the shocking change of putting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in the game and finding a miraculous victory. Ironically, it was Alabama that ended Georgia’s latest bid at ending the drought.

On Monday, Smart and Georgia can exercise their demons. The aforementioned loss in the title game. A drubbing in the SEC Championship earlier this year. Smart being unable to defeat Saban. It all goes away if Georgia can defeat Alabama in Indianapolis.

However, Smart doesn’t feel the weight of a championship drought on his shoulders. On Friday, the leader of the Bulldogs revealed that his team isn’t letting outside noise cloud their vision.

“I can’t feel it, I can’t say that I feel it,” Smart responded, when asked if he can feel how bad Georgia faithful wants a championship. “We work in a little bit of a bubble. We’re into work every day. I mean, I feel it probably more because of the people around my family, and being a Georgia person, and being connected to those people.

“But I can’t say that I actually feel it. I feel hot, cold, tired. Those things I feel. I don’t feel much as others.”

Kirby Smart would love nothing more than to lead the program that finally ends the drought. Still, he’s not letting the possibilities cloud his vision prior to kickoff.