Kirby Smart didn’t hide his frustration Monday after two Georgia locker room speeches surfaced online from the Bulldogs’ 20-17 win over Alabama.
Smart said the leaks cut into the kind of private space he wants with his team, especially when he’s trying to challenge players away from the cameras and the noise.
"It's happened before. It's not something I want," Smart said.
"I feel like that's a spot you should be able to feel safe to talk to your team and communicate with your team. It's happened before to us.
We've gotta do a better job managing it, honestly."
The videos showed Smart’s pregame and postgame messages from Saturday, giving a rare unfiltered look at how he handles one of Georgia’s biggest wins of the season. The coach has built “FPE” - Fire, Passion, and Energy - into a core message over the last two years, and those themes were on full display in the recordings.
Before kickoff, Smart pushed Georgia to match Alabama’s physicality and make that part of the game on its own terms. Afterward, he leaned into the aggressive edge that helped the Bulldogs finish the job, pointing to a late sequence involving Georgia’s Craig Dandridge and Alabama’s Dijon Lee Jr. In that moment, Smart praised Dandridge for keeping his composure after Lee struck him, and he explained why Georgia wanted to keep attacking instead of settling in and hoping the game would end safely.
The result was a 20-17 victory and Smart’s first win in Tuscaloosa as Georgia’s head coach.
Smart didn’t say who recorded the speeches or how Georgia might try to keep it from happening again. Still, his comments made clear he sees the leak as a repeat problem, not a one-off nuisance.
For running back Dwight Phillips Jr., though, the pregame message was just classic Kirby Smart.
"I mean, for the most part, he's always like that in the locker room," Phillips said. "It just, it fires you up, just gets you ready to play."
That was the inside view from a player who hears those messages all the time. What looks explosive from the outside is part of the routine inside the Georgia locker room, where Smart’s edge is part of the buildup and part of the culture.
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Georgia Defense Just Sent A Clear Message In The Alabama Win
Georgias 20-17 win over Alabama looked like more than just another top-end SEC result. The Bulldogs defense spent the night making the Crimson Tide uncomfortable, and the bigger takeaway was how the group answered a challenge against an offense that had been piling up points all fall. Linebacker Chris Cole and safety Khalil Barnes pointed to the teams physical practice habits and sharp defensive focus as part of the reason Georgia was able to control so much of the game.
The real separation came after halftime, when Georgia tightened the screws and barely let Alabama breathe. The Bulldogs allowed only three points the rest of the way and shut out the Tide in the fourth quarter, which is the kind of finish that tends to travel well in this league. For Georgia, the win was important on the scoreboard, but the way the defense handled the second half may have said even more about where this unit is headed. [Read more 🡒]
Kirby Smart Sounds Off After Ugly Alabama Postgame Incident
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Alabama athletics later said it was disappointed in the fans behavior and was gathering information, while Kirby Smart addressed the episode in his postgame press conference. Smart condemned what happened and pointed to Wilsons calm response, a small bit of composure in a scene that otherwise said little good about the way the night ended. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Just Lost A Star Defender Before Facing No. 1 Georgia
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Golesh said the suspension will be revisited after the game, leaving the door open for Atkins to return later in the season. For Georgia, it is one more development to monitor in a matchup that already carried major stakes, and for Auburn it raises the pressure on a unit that will need to absorb the absence of a centerpiece in the middle of the field. [Read more 🡒]