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Earlier this week, Kirby Smart clarified that COVID-19 was a concern for his team after allowing players to return home during the Christmas holidays to be with their families.
Related: Georgia on ‘pins and needles’ on Covid-19 testing leading to Peach Bowl
In his last media appearance before the Bulldogs took No. 8 from Cincinnati, Smart did not say which players will be excluded from the game. But he hinted that some players may be unavailable for the game.
“The guys who can play will be there to play. Those who unfortunately won’t be there to play, ”said Smart. “We’ve been dealing with this all year and haven’t revealed it.”
Georgia tested the players on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday before the game against the Bearcats. On top of all the COVID-related absences, Georgia will be without Eric Stokes, DJ Daniel, Monty Rice, Tre ‘McKitty and Ben Cleveland, as these five all declared for the 2021 NFL Draft.
The Bulldogs will also be without James Cook following the death of his father earlier in the week.
“James was close to his father. A difficult and difficult environment for him, ”said Smart. “I know all the running backs have reached out to him, talked to him. I spoke with him several times. He takes care of it as best he can. Appreciate all the support from Dawg Nation, all of our fans. Your heart goes for him.
It will be the 10th game this season for both teams, a game COVID has obviously impacted. Both teams have had games called off due to the virus this year. They also both saw their non-conference badly affected. The Bearcats were supposed to play in Nebraska, while Georgia had all of their non-conference games won.
Friday’s game will be the first time in all season Georgia will face a team that does not represent the SEC.
“If you had asked the players, they would have liked to have faced the non-conference opponents in terms of starting with UVA,” said Smart. They will always say they want to play.
“I know that all the players, including myself, would have loved to be able to compete and play every game possible.”
Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell stressed that teams are not only battling COVID this year, but also the wear and tear that comes with a normal college football season. Georgia knows this, as Richard LeCounte and Jordan Davis have missed several games with injury this year.
“There’s a lot of stuff going on in the back, whether you missed practice, had some free time, the guys aren’t that healthy,” Fickell said. “It’s not just their lungs, the virus, it’s the things that happen to guys who aren’t there. We are in the same boat.
However, Smart was proud of the way his team handled the endless adversity that 2020 has brought to the Georgia squad. In August, when the Big Ten and PAC-12 canceled their respective seasons, it seemed hard to imagine that a full season of college football would be played.
Still, at the end of 2020, Georgia have played nine games and are set to play in a 10th Friday. This Georgia team has certainly lived up to the “do more” nickname during this season.
“Never, never, never give up. Don’t stop on it, ”Smart said. Continue to fight, to move forward. We teach our children valuable lessons. There are a lot of people in the world today, in America today, I’m not going to say use COVID, use the pandemic maybe to do less.
“These kids actually did more, okay?” They did more during the pandemic because they had to work twice as hard to stay available. “
Kirby Smart presents the Peach Bowl against Cincinnati
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