'Better never rests': Georgia stomping out complacency for three-peat run
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kirby Smart places a great deal of emphasis on messaging. It starts within the team where the mantra will often change from week to week so it doesn’t get stale but there are also over-arching themes.
A couple of years ago it was “you’re either elite or you’re not.” Last season, after his team had just won the program’s first National Championships since 1982, Smart took the podium at SEC Media Days in Atlanta and said that his team would be the hunter and not hunted.
The 2023 season will be no different. Smart was introduced at SEC Media Days on Tuesday as the head coach of the back-to-back National Champion Georgia Bulldogs. It’s the first time in the College Football Playoff era that a team has won two titles in two years. Now UGA takes aim at a three-peat, something that has never been done with a season longer than eight games.
It took the eighth-year head coach a few minutes but he eventually got to the program’s rallying cry for the 2023 season.
“Better never rests,” Smart said.
It comes from the New Zealand National Rugby team, the All Blacks. Smart says that the Bulldogs have spent the past six weeks studying the organization and the reasoning is simple. Many consider the All Blacks the most successful team in the history of sports.
They have appeared in the Rugby World Cup nine times. They’ve won three world championships and have wins of over 100 points to their credit. The All Blacks have most of the past two decades ranked as the No. 1 team in the world, never dropping below fifth. The organization is a model of both consistency and excellence.
Once again, it’s about process…
The All Blacks’ success caught Smart’s eye but it was the process that kept his attention. As the mantra suggests, the continuous pursuit of improvement has been a huge part of what has helped the organization become the gold standard — not only in Rugby but in team sports in general.
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Would anyone fault Georgia for not making history in 2023? Minnesota was the last team to win three straight titles and that came in the 1930s when seasons were a little over half as long as they are now. But the past two seasons don’t concern Smart. He’s focused on the moment. He’s focused on the enemy — complacency.
“The threat, for us, is complacency. The first thing you have to do is acknowledge that it is a threat. Like if you acknowledge that complacency is a threat, it’s the first threat toward stomping it out.”
Georgia mantras build off each other…
The statements from each year sound different but they mean something similar. They don’t just go away because of the calendar or achievement. In fact, Smart told reporters on Tuesday that qualities independent of outcomes are what he seeks as a leader.
The messages have resonated with his team and they’ve been carried from on season to the next. Junior tight end Brock Bowers, junior center Sedrick Van Pran, and junior cornerback Kamari Lassiter helped Smart represent Georgia at SEC Media Days. It was nearly impossible to get those players to entertain the idea of a three-peat, much like they didn’t want to talk back-to-back last year.
“We just want to be the best team we can be,” Lassiter said, “just make sure that we uphold the standard and hold ourselves accountable… The way coach Smart puts it, last year he said success is given to those who are too busy (working) to search for it. So we’re just doing everything we can to keep the standard the standard — to keep the main thing the main thing.”
