Georgia coach Kirby Smart says: "They know what's at stake"

ATHENS – Georgia coach Kirby Smart said he was proud of his team's resilience since losing to LSU, and he hoped the game would be played in Jacksonville next Saturday.

"I think the kids are a lot tougher than what you give them," Smart said at his weekly press conference Monday at the Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall. "It's the people in charge of the program, the organization and the coaches who have to rely on it.

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"We are the ones who manage a loss sometimes harder than the players," said Smart. "I think the players are resilient, they're back to work, we had a very good job on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, working for ourselves, just trying to improve." Florida subjects, and I think it was a good change of pace for them to start working on a new opponent and get ready for it, so our players responded very well. "

Smart conceded that the fact that it was a match between No. 7 (Georgia) and No. 9 (Florida) probably had an effect on the focus that it had seen.

"Sometimes it's hard to get them off after three days off and you have to take out the cobwebs," said Smart. But with a match like this, our guys are excited and I'm sure their guys are too.

The Bulldogs (6-1, 4-1 SEC) won the rivalry last year with the Gators (6-1, 4-1) in Jacksonville, 42-7, but Florida had won the previous three games and was 19-7 against UGA since SEC division division in 1992.

"Many of our guys do not have a winning record against them," said Smart. "But I think more important than that, they know what's at stake for this game, and they know it's going to be a tough physical battle – two well-trained teams and two talented teams."

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