Kirby Smart explains why Georgia shortened practices and how they've gotten creative with walk-throughs and meetings

Kirby Smart built Georgia into a perennial title contender on a demanding, detail-heavy practice culture he brought with him from Tuscaloosa. As the season has gotten longer over the years with the 12-team playoff, he's been focused on trimming the week, and he recently shared exactly what that looks like in Athens.

Asked if he's changed his approach as the season wears on, Smart said Georgia has made cuts this year, starting with the walk-throughs (he calls simply "walks") the team used to run after practice. The rest of the week has been shrinking for a while, according to response he shared with Georgia Chambers.

"We've shortened some things this year, and we have cut some things. We used to do walks after practice," Smart said.

"We cut down on the length of practice a couple of years ago. We've gotten in a good routine now where Monday is at a certain length, right at an hour, Tuesday is getting after it for an hour and 45 minutes, and Wednesday is a little bit less at an hour and 20 or 30. And Thursday is right around an hour for us."

That adds up to a little over five hours of on-field work across four days. The classroom time hasn't gone anywhere.

"But we still use up to two hours in meetings and walks and that has become a point of emphasis for us," Smart said.

Those numbers look a lot like Curt Cignetti's week at Indiana, where short practices are a trademark. Last October, On3 laid out the Hoosiers' in-season schedule: a 35-minute walk-through on Monday, one hour and 35 minutes of practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and a 25-minute walk-through on Friday. Cignetti doesn't let the clock run the session, either.

"If I feel like we've gotten enough done in a certain period, I blow the whistle and keep it moving," Cignetti told The Herald-Times in 2024. "And players are not looking at the clock to see how much time is in the period. I just think it runs smoother."

That approach carried Indiana to a 16-0 season in 2025, a Big Ten title and the program's first national championship. Earlier this month, we shared Smart saying he's still waiting on the first "Cignetti effect" in the SEC. When it comes to how long you keep players on the field, the two are closer than that comment would suggest.

#5 Georgia (6-1, 4-1 SEC) is back from its bye week and gets #20 Florida on Saturday, October 31, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

The changes started in fall camp. Georgia dropped the traditional rhythm of five or six straight practice days followed by a day off and moved to a three-on, one-off schedule, according to DawgNation. Smart pointed to the NCAA's shorter camp timeline as part of the reason, and said some sessions were cut shorter and lighter because the August heat in Athens ran seven or eight degrees hotter than the year before. He also said the intensity didn't drop.

Smart is coming off a 12-2 season in 2025 that included a 28-7 win over Alabama in the SEC Championship Game before a 39-34 loss to Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl, a College Football Playoff quarterfinal. A team that wants to be playing in January has to get there with its two-deep intact.

Smart and Cignetti both came up on Nick Saban's early staffs at Alabama, Smart as defensive coordinator from 2008 through 2015 and Cignetti as wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator from 2007 through 2010. Now both are running some of the shortest practice weeks in the sport. Smart isn't backing off physical practice. He's deciding when it happens, who takes the reps, and how much of the work gets done in the meeting room instead of on the grass.

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