Freshmen football players typically experience a temporary cap on their development in fall camp. When the combination of fatigue and the flood of position group information combine to slow, stop, or in some cases, cause a player to regress – he has hit “The Wall.” During Thursday’s presser, Kirby was asked (09:02 mark in the video below) what gets a player over the wall and back on track.
 
 

“Coaches! Our job is to lead them through it. Some of these kids, they don’t know how to push through it. They’ve never been through consecutive practices this intense in their life. We’ve got to call them in. We’ve got to meet with them. We’ve got to encourage them. We’ve got to be positive with them. We’ve got to text them at night. And then we’ve got to teach them. A lot of times you don’t get to teach on the field because you’ve got to go on the next play so I’m yelling and screaming at a guy and he’s like ‘I don’t learn.’ We’ve got to settle them down, we come to the meeting room and walk through it in the morning. We’ve got to lead them through the wall. Some of them have hit. Some of them are mature and they push right through it. Most of those kids have not had the adversity they’re facing right now.”

Kirby Smart Press Conference – August 10, 2017

Uploaded by Bulldawg Illustrated on 2017-08-10.