Kirby Smart saw all the fuss about the bizarre reality show “Tiger King” on Netflix, so he tuned in.
“I got through two episodes, and I just couldn’t do it, man. I couldn’t stomach it,” Smart said. “Everybody continues to talk about it, but my patience wears thin. I’m looking for a little more plot. I’m not sure what the word is, but that’s not my cup of tea. I’m more of an Ozark guy myself.”
That was one among several revelations Smart shared as he spoke with beat reporters Tuesday on a conference call arranged by UGA’s sports-communications department. Smart said he, like probably everybody else, has found himself with a little more time on his hands as everyone deals with the coronavirus pandemic.
Smart was among many individuals who found themselves on a 14-day quarantine as soon as he returned from spring break earlier this month. Smart and his family visited Costa Rica and “multiple places down that way” during UGA’s spring break March 6-13. As soon as he returned, he found himself in lockdown at his house on West Lake Drive in the Beechwood area of Athens.
“It really wasn’t any different than anybody else in the country,” Smart said. “It was I think a State Department declaration that if you came in from outside the country you had to do that, and we had multiple players and multiple coaches and other people who had to do the same thing. But once I got back, basically the whole country was on quarantine. There was nowhere you could go.”
Smart did say the timing of country’s shutdown might have put Georgia football at a bit of a competitive disadvantage because the school and players were on spring break when the shutdown was implemented.
“A lot of schools were in session when this happened, and they were able to have a team meeting, they were able to have an exit strategy. We were all over the place,” Smart said. “Everybody was out, and we didn’t feel comfortable about bringing everybody back in together back in Athens. So that’s been hard because we had to call each player individually. We have ways to connect with them through Zoom and FaceTime. But not having that exit meeting to say ‘this is where we’re headed’ was probably the toughest point.”
Georgia was scheduled to begin spring practice March 17. The Bulldogs would have been conducting their seventh of 15 practice sessions Tuesday.
Smart said things have improved considerably now that UGA is back in session as a school. The university resumed classes online Monday, and the SEC is now allowing member institutions to communicate daily with players via digital conference calls.
However, limitations remain.
“We’re not allowed to have but a few people (in the office), and they have to be ‘essential people’ as defined by the (University System of Georgia),” Smart said. “But we’re not asking for people to come into the office. Most of us are able to work from home. The coaching staff has daily Zoom meetings – we’re in a Zoom meeting now – with offense, defense and special teams, all separate as a staff. That’s exactly what we’d be doing if we were in spring ball.”
As for player interactions, Smart said: “We have to be careful on that one. We can have unlimited contact with our players, calling and checking on them and their health, their well-being. That’s certainly something that we can do with our staff. … But as far as the activity they’re doing, we can’t mandate any activity for our players, that they get this done or that done. Anything in that regard they have to do on their own, and we have a clear separation on that.”
Meanwhile, Smart has found himself at home way more than he typically would be this of year. In the past, he would have been at the Butts-Mehre football complex literally from dawn well into dark. Now he’s home all day.
How does that look?
He said he “doesn’t have the patience” to help his wife, Mary Beth, with home-schooling their three children. But he’s doing a lot of other things he usually doesn’t do. Like watch shows on Netflix and exercise daily.
“It has been a unique experience for me; I can say that much,” Smart said. “It’s not just being at home for me as much as it’s being outside exercising, you know, going on walks, on runs, on jogs. It’s probably been better for my real health than anything because I’ve had more time to do things like get out and go exercise. I certainly don’t like sitting at home at all, but that’s what we’re all having to do.”
Check back to AJC.com for more Georgia football updates, such as how the shutdown is affecting the development of graduate transfer quarterback Jamie Newman and how the Bulldogs are going about recruiting.
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