ATHENS — Georgia coach Kirby Smart said he always thought there was going to be a football season this year. His players didn’t necessarily share his optimism.
“Yeah, I was not very confident we were going to play this year, especially after the other conferences shut it down,” said Georgia senior linebacker Monty Rice. “But we’re here for a reason, so, let’s play. Hopefully, everybody will keep wearing their masks and we’ll get to play.”
“Personally, I had mixed emotions,” sophomore receiver Kearis Jackson said. “One week, I’d be, like, ‘yeah, we’re playing,’ and the next it’d be, like, ‘man, I don’t know.’ Now I’m just trusting the process and praying every night we’ll be playing because we need this season.”
The SEC will at least get started. Its altered, conference-only schedule is set to begin this Saturday. The No. 4-ranked Bulldogs open on the road against Arkansas (4 p.m., SEC Network). Georgia was installed as a 25-point favorite.
The excitement is palpable. Smart used the word “excited” or one of its derivatives seven times during his opening statement Monday while previewing the opener during his digital press conference. He was asked if he ever doubted there would even be a season opener, what with the Big Ten and Pac-12 opting out back in August.
“I never lost optimism based on the decision they made because I was going off of the information I was getting right here in the SEC from Ron (Courson) and the (UGA) medical staff, Commissioner (Greg) Sankey,” Smart said. “They’ve been very open in their communication with us, and the optimism has always been there. I was always looking forward to it. Didn’t know exactly when the date would be that we get to it, but I felt comfortable that we would get there.”
Credit: Georgia Bulldogs
Almost, anyway. The Bulldogs still have to get to Fayetteville, Ark., and clear SEC COVID-19 protocols.
So far, there have been 16 FBS games postponed or canceled due to the impact of COVID-19 on rosters, according to The Associated Press. Georgia Southern’s contest against Florida Atlantic scheduled for this Saturday and Baylor’s season opener versus Houston are the latest games to come off the board due to healthy player shortages.
The cancellations are the result of new guidelines adopted by most FBS conferences — including the SEC — that require teams to have at least 53 scholarship players available to play. That must include at least seven offensive linemen (including one center), one quarterback and four defensive linemen. Teams that can’t meet the positional meetings must cancel and the game will be rescheduled if possible. Otherwise, they have the option of choosing to play under the roster minimum.
NCAA rules allow 85 players to be on scholarship.
So far, Georgia hasn’t announced that any of its players are out due to infection or exposure to the virus. But this week marks the first in which the SEC’s guidelines kick in requiring every team member be tested twice before each game and once after.
Likewise, Arkansas hasn’t announced any COVID-based absences either. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports it this way: “(Arkansas) has not released its COVID-19 positives or quarantine numbers since a report of zero in late July. Sources have told the ADG that there have been some of both since then in multiple sports, including football. (Athletic Director) Hunter Yurachek told the board of trustees last Thursday that they could have fielded a team under the SEC mandatory minimums each of the past two weeks and Pittman said he was certain they would meet the standards for the opener.”
Based on the exposure numbers teams have experienced to date, there are bound to be some SEC players scratched. The concern, of course, is a massive outbreak that might wipe out whole position groups from being able to participate.
Credit: Tony Walsh
Credit: Tony Walsh
Meanwhile, Georgia has the added challenge of having to travel for this game. The Bulldogs have fared well against the virus from their “bubble” in Athens, but now they must negotiate buses, planes and hotels. Only Florida (817 air miles) and South Carolina (757) have to travel farther to play the Razorbacks in Fayetteville, Ark., than Georgia (629).
Smart doesn’t see the travel as inherently risky.
“I don’t know that the actual traveling is going to change a whole lot,” he said. "The biggest change is that everyone going on the trip will have been tested multiple, multiple times — three times in a game week, including possibly one the day of travel. So, that’s the most unique thing. They are trying to weed out anyone being in the travel party that would have COVID. Can you 100% do that? No. But we can come as accurate as possible, and that would be the goal.
“But as far as actual travel, it’s not like we are going to be completely in a bubble. We are going to be on planes and buses, transporting the same way we typically do.”
Only those with an expressed, game-day responsibility will travel with the Bulldogs. Even UGA Athletic Director Greg McGarity is not making the trip.
“I’m not considered in the bubble,” he said.
In the meantime, Georgia players are pressing on and trying to block out any negative thoughts.
“I never really let it seep into my brain that we (might not) play because that would affect how I train,” senior outside linebacker Jermaine Johnson said Monday. “So, I just train every day like we were going to have a game, like nothing is going to change.”
And, yes, they, too, are excited to finally play an actual game.
“It’s exciting just to go back out there after not knowing whether we were going to have a season or not," Jackson said. "No we’re getting ready to go play our first game in a couple of days, so I’m ready to go out there and play some ball.”
