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Kirby Smart: Georgia football teeming with leadership ahead of 2023 season

On3 imageby:Jake Rowe•07/18/23•

JakeMRowe

Sedrick Van Pran
Tony Walsh | UGAAA

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Georgia, like every other team that has or will appear at SEC Media Days, brought three players. Choosing those three players, according to Kirby Smart in a small-group session with reporters at The Grand Hyatt in downtown Nashville, was not easy.

Normally the Bulldogs have a couple of obvious choices on who to bring to the frenzied event where they get peppered with questions, both serious and lighthearted. According to Smart, the tough decision is usually trying to figure out who the third will be.

This year was different and it’s not because Georgia doesn’t have enough leaders. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

“This year it was really a toss up across the board because we had so many,” Smart said when asked what separated the three players joining him in The Music City from the guys who didn’t make the trip.
“I felt like we had so many guys capable of coming and worthy of coming to represent us because we’ve got a really good group in terms of confront and demand and lead and do all those things.

Ultimately choices had to be made and Georgia decided upon a trio of juniors, Brock Bowers, Sedrick Van Pran, and Kamari Lassiter.

Georgia leadership in action…

One of the reasons the UGA program is teeming with leadership goes back to a decision made by Van Pran in January. With most considering it a foregone conclusion that the New Orleans native would enter the 2023 NFL Draft, Van Pran decided to return.

Why? Well, that’s rooted in how he feels about his teammates and the Georgia program. He told reporters on Tuesday that he considers it an honor to share a locker room with the likes of Bowers, Lassiter, and other Bulldogs.

That sounds ideal and nice and, to some, it might seem a bit basic when talking about a team that has won back-to-back National Championships. But in the age of student-athletes being able to make significant money off Name, Image, and Likeness deals and the transfer portal, cohesion is as tough to achieve as ever. Georgia, according to Van Pran, has made it happen.

“Just being quite honest and frank with you, there’s no money on the field,” Van Pran said. “You don’t see dollar signs when you’re out there practicing. You don’t see bank accounts or any of that when you’re out there running with the guys to the left and to the right of you. You’re all through the same thing. It doesn’t matter.

“To be honest with you, a lot of that stuff really doesn’t come up much from the simple fact that we’re all even. We’re all on the same playing field. We’re all going through the same thing. It’s not like one guy may be more NIL and he gets to skip practice. That doesn’t happen. It’s kind of irrelevant.”

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