Georgia Football: Team "Connection"

By Marc Weiszer

In the business world, a company may hold a corporate retreat for employees for team building in hopes of producing better results.

The Georgia football team turned inward for players to get to know the guy across from them in the locker room or the person who they lined up besides or against on the practice field.

Skull sessions, they called them. It started last winter after an 8-2 season in which Georgia failed to win the SEC East for the first time since 2016 and the pandemic altered usual player interactions.

For three days a week, players met in small groups for as long as 20 to 25 minutes. They were held after weight lifting sessions. Coach Kirby Smart moved from meeting to meeting and assistant coaches rotated.

“I’ve learned so many different stories throughout the offseason on players’ whys and what makes them go every single day,” junior tight end John Fitzpatrick said. “What makes them work hard to get to whatever goals they are chasing.”

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Nose guard Jordan Davis credits the skull sessions for the No. 1 Bulldogs jelling together.

“It’s more enjoyable this time around because you truly know your brother and know who you’re playing with,” he said.

The offensive linemen met together with position coach Matt Luke and players recited their full names and shared any nicknames. Redshirt freshman Broderick Jones shared his was “Tubby.”

“If Brod’s having a bad day you can walk out there and call him Tubby, he might smile, he might have a better practice,” offensive tackle Jamaree Salyer said. “Even when I’m having a bad day, they can say something to me and understand my why and say, ‘Hey, you’re doing this for your Mom, you're doing this for your family.'”

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Georgia is chasing a national championship and it is in prime position to make a run at the program’s first national title since 1980.

There’s no way to know how much the team’s “connection,” the term that’s been recited by players and Smart over and over again this season, really is behind the Bulldogs’ storming through its schedule with one decisive win after another.

Every team Georgia has lined up against this season is at a talent disadvantage and that will include Tennessee which goes up against the Bulldogs Saturday in Knoxville at 3:30 p.m.

But that was the case last year and Florida drilled Georgia and won the SEC East and Alabama — a team with an equally talented roster — also dealt the Bulldogs a loss.

“If we want to get over the hump like everybody’s harping on, we’ve got to change the way we think,” Salyer said before the season. “It’s something about the way we think because we have the talent, we have the coaching we have everything we need so we’ve got to change the way we think and try to attack our mindset and make sure we take every day seriously, every rep seriously and get the best out of this season whatever that looks like.”

Georgia players insist “connection,” is more than just a catchy slogan for the season or a buzzword they’ve adopted this year, but is genuine.

“It’s 100 percent real,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think everyone on the team believes it. It’s hard to put into words what it’s translating into, but just having love for your teammates around you. You know the left tackle or right tackle I’m next to is going to go 100 percent on every single play no matter what it is and I’m going to do the same. When you work collectively like that, only success can come with that.”

The team started to come together for 2021 in the last game of the 2020 season when it was missing four starters who opted out of the Peach Bowl and saw another leave as a transfer.

That came at the end of a pandemic season that was clouded with uncertainty as players met via zoom after spring practice was scrapped, underwent regular COVID-19 testing and some quarantined during bowl prep.

“We knew the type of team we had, the potential we had,” Fitzpatrick said. “We just wanted to find something that could bring our team closer. I think the coaches made that a focal point to the offseason.”

Connection was one of the “DNA” traits they pinpointed at separate sessions along with composure, resiliency, and toughness. Safety Christopher Smith called those the team’s “pillars.”

“We just evaluated where did we go wrong and how can we get better as a unit,” said safety Lewis Cine, who sat in front and led some of the skull session meetings. “Coaches can scheme everything right but if us as players aren’t really bonded and we’re not running as a unit, it’s going to affect us in the long run. We decided to get us better first in terms of our relationships, our connections and all that and after that we focused on the football. Honestly, when we saw that we focused on the little things in terms of our relationships, that really helped us more than the football.”

This is more of a player-drive team. So much so that Smart said he hasn’t had to meet once with the team’s leadership group like in past years.

“The leaders have developed through those sessions, not through meetings, group meetings with me, or meetings with strength coaches, or other people,” Smart said. “They've come naturally through the off-season with connection, composure, toughness and the resiliency they've had."

Smart said the players feel more united and that’s across position groups.

“They know each other's 'why' and their purpose,” he said.

Cine said players got to know each other on a “deeper level,” that went beyond their responsibilities on a certain play call.

“There’s no really dragging during practice,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think that’s a big thing. Everyone’s excited for the practice every single day. On a Monday or a Tuesday, when we know we have to hit and know we have to hit hard.”

Smart said the skull sessions offered “a safe space where we think our kids can talk and be open and provide a forum to allow them to address how they feel, how it affects them personally, their family or whatever.”

He said he saw players in a different light when they opened up to share things that were personal.

“We feel the teams that are super close are able to make big runs,” punter Jake Camarda said. “There’s nothing more important than getting to enjoy being out on the field with your brothers and your coaches and just getting to know each other.”

Said Davis: “I definitely think the key to a successful team is a cohesive team. We need to know the brother beside us. I always say, if you can't trust the person next to you, then you won't be willing to play your heart out for them.”

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Originally published by the Athens Banner-Herald, Nov 10, 2021 here.