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Kirby Smart shares thoughts on TCU, National Championship game

Palmber-Thombsby:Palmer Thombs•01/02/23•

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Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart joined the ESPN College GameDay crew on Monday morning, a week away from his team’s showdown against TCU for the national title. Less than 48 hours removed from an emotional win over Ohio State, Smart was in the thick of things preparing to take on the Horned Frogs and shared some of his early thoughts on the matchup including his expectation for his team to quickly re-focus and re-energize for the championship game.

“Winning a ring, that’s the motivation, and you’ve got to get over that one quick and get on to the next one,” Smart said. “Fortunately we have a little time in terms of, we don’t have the seven day turnaround we had coming back from Pasadena in 2017-18, but it’s going to be a quick turnaround. You used to have 28 days, and now this thing slides to 7-8 days and it already feels like its upon us right now.”

Georgia had a couple of players go down with injury on Saturday night in the 42-41 win over the Buckeyes. Both tight end Darnell Washington (ankle) and outside linebacker Chaz Chambliss (knee) left the game in the first half only to not return.

“We’re hopeful to get pretty much all the guys back. That’s the hope,” Smart said. “We had some guys dropping there for a little bit. We were on our twos and threes in some spots, but some guys stepped up and played and that’s what you have to have at the end of the year.”

As for his postgame message to his team, Smart made it clear that he did not think that they played their best. Still being able to come out on top though is all that matters as Georgia lives to fight another day, now 60 minutes away from back-to-back national championships.

“I told them that they were resilient. The number one quality that you want in a football team is heart and character, and I thought both of these teams embody those things. They’ve had a ton of comeback and really tight ball games. Our team has come back and fought in the fourth quarter. When you start looking at the character and identity of these two teams, they mirror each other in terms of the leadership at the quarterback position and the heart and soul of the team. We tell them, I was proud of the way they competed, but we’ve got to come in here today, see the doctor and get some stuff fixed.”

Georgia and TCU square off next Monday, January 9th, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. The Bulldogs opened as 13.5-point favorite according the oddsmakers in Las Vegas shortly after the conclusion of their semifinal game early Sunday morning. Kickoff time of the national title game is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

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