Kirby Smart weighs in on Georgia's drops issue

USA Today

2 days ago

The Georgia Bulldogs led the nation in dropped passes last year, with 36 total dropped passes. When Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was asked about what caused the problem with dropped passes, he didn't mince words:
'There's a lot of times that (a dropped pass) is mental and technical — you can have both — and we try to help them both ways,' Smart said during his appearance on Atlanta's WZGC-FM, 92.9 FM The Game.
'The biggest thing is getting confidence in practice so that you can have confidence in games. You get confidence by your habits, right?'
'I think last year that's a cumulative effect of like 'Oh God, oh God, oh God it's going to happen. I think they did it to themselves. You can get in your own head, hitters do it, pitchers do it …. it's something we have to work really hard on with the guys to gain confidence.'
Smart believes wide receivers can more assurance in their catching abilities if they execute in practice, whether that's through the JUGS machine or through pulling in contested catches.
Georgia overhauled its receiving core from last year. USC transfer Zachariah Branch and Texas A&M transfer Noah Thomas replace Arian Smith and Dominic Lovett, who each had nine drops and are on NFL rosters.
Dillon Bell, who had eight last year, is still on the Georgia Bulldogs' roster, but he'll be looking to gain more consistency if he wins a camp battle with Colbie Young. Georgia has plenty of talent in its wide receiver room.