Kirby Smart: Rankings are Rat Poison

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Kirby Smart: Rankings are Rat Poison

Kirby Smart instructs players during practice
Kirby Smart instructs players during practice

 
 
The Georgia Bulldogs should be ranked either the number one or number two team in the country in the first release of the College Football Playoff poll, but head coach Kirby Smart knows these polls are just a distraction.

 

The Bulldogs are off to one of their best starts as they sit at number two on the AP poll and are one of the last few teams without a loss. However, coach Smart understands how complacency can grow when a team has a start like this. Smart very much does not concern himself with the team’s ranking and does not allow there to be any focus on something that he views that has the potential to be a big distraction.
 
 

“They talked about rat poison a lot and things like that. We don’t really have to address it if you confront it from the beginning, so the rankings that have been coming out up until this point — the AP ones — are the same thing. It’s just a distraction,” said Smart. “It’s only a distractive measure that we have to contend with.”

 
 
The Bulldogs focus right now is on taking it one game at a time according to Smart and he continues to preach to his players that humility is only a week away and that focusing on past wins accomplishments is the opposite of what he wants them to do. Smart has to know the distraction the playoff poll can create for his team because it truly is the only poll that matters.
 
 
However, with four games left on their regular season schedule and a potential SEC championship game appearance on the horizon, Smart is focused on taking it one game at a time and he has to teach his players to continue to have this same mindset.
 
 
The playoff poll does not matter at all to Smart now and he is not concerned with it all. When asked if he likes seeing how the committee values his team and seeing the first playoff poll he said “No. Not really. It just matters how we finish.”
 
 
The Bulldogs are in prime position to make the playoff but they have to continue to put all of their focus on winning games.
 
 

 
 
 
 


 
 

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Michael Pope is a Journalism student in the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia, with an emphasis in sports. He enjoys covering all sports, especially basketball, football, and baseball.