Kirby Smart gets emotional about Cole Speer, other seniors vs Alabama
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ATLANTA — Georgia football coach Kirby Smart got emotional about wide receiver Cole Speer, and several other seniors, after the Bulldogs beat Alabama 28-7 in the SEC Championship on Saturday, Dec. 6, in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Speer, Smart said, has sacrificed a lot for the program.
The Bulldogs had a team meeting on Friday. Sports psychologist Drew Brannon picked five players for coaches to talk about: Speer, Oscar Delp, Daylen Everette, Micah Morris and Dillon Bell.
The coaches put on the screen how many days these seniors had been at Georgia and how many days they potentially had left. Smart said as fourth- and fifth-year players, they had 1% left after being there for 1,200 days.
Speer was one who stood out because he’d made strides in the spring, had been extremely competitive, but had also been subdued by an injury in the spring game that set him back.
“He never flinched,” Smart said. “He never complains. He just does what he’s asked to do. He’s extremely fast and physical.”
Smart recounted some of those five players’ successes on Saturday, Bell with his 5-yard touchdown reception off Gunner Stockton, Everette with his 34-yard interception and Speer with his blocked punt that set up the drive for Roderick Robinson II to score.
“Before (Drew) finished, he said, ‘Stand up if you’ve beaten Alabama in a game,'” Smart recounted. “None of them stood up. It was a very moving piece.”
Morris was on the team for the 2022 national championship win over the Crimson Tide but did not play. Same with Cash Jones.
“I thought it hit right between the eyes of doing it for the seniors,” Smart said. “So many of them have been through heartbreaking losses that they wanted to do it.”
Smart said he almost teared up in the locker room when they brought Speer forward to celebrate, because that’s going to be gone soon because everybody’s going to chase four- and five-star recruits.
“We recruited Cole, and he’s on scholarship, a little different than your Dan Jackson’s and Cash Jones’,” Smart said. “The stories of that kid, you’ve got to be a bold coach to say I’m going to take this kid who loves the University of Georgia and will do anything and make sacrifices. … Cole Speer, that guy is an incredible role player for us.”
“It feels great,” Speer said about the play. “You work every day in practice and in the games, you don’t really get many opportunities like that. When you do, you’ve got to make it count. All the work I’ve put in the last four years, it shows to go out there to make a play like that.”
Other players on the team commended Speer for the play.
“Man, I was shocked,” Raylen Wilson said. “We practice it. … It paid off. It was good to see that. I felt like it was one of the biggest plays in the game. It flipped the whole momentum.”
“He’s one of my best friends, one of my roommates,” Stockton said. “Just seeing all of the hard work he’s put into this program, just seeing it pay off was definitely special.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Kirby Smart got emotional about Georgia football WR Cole Speer postgame
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