If you had to identify the single most important trait for players in your program what would it be? Enthusiasm? Toughness? Grit? Relentlessness? There are a number of good traits that you could easily justify, and it's something worth dedicating some serious thought to as you carve out what you want to be the overriding identity of your squad.
At Georgia, under Kirby Smart and his staff, players are monitored daily on their competitiveness. That is the single most important trait in the UGA program now. Smart explained his rationale for the focus on the trait to the media yesterday, and a lot of it has to do with what the NFL looks for when height, weight, and 40-times are all about the same.
“We rank kids on scales for competitiveness. We’ve talked about it with NFL teams. They quit evaluating kids necessarily on size and weight and ability; they evaluate them on competitiveness." Smart noted to DawgNation.
"That’s one of the features that allows you to be successful. At the end of the day, the qualities of height, weight and 40 (time) are pretty similar. So what makes you different is your competitiveness and your toughness. We’re preaching that to our kids.”
Smart noted that UGA has some kids that like to compete, but there are still some others that haven't embraced the competitiveness as the end of spring ball approaches.
"We’ve got some other guys who don’t like to compete, and you have to challenge them and make them compete. I want them to do it themselves. I want them to self-motivate, self-start. And I want the other guys to push them so I don’t have to.
“When I come in here hoarse, that means I had to push them hard. And I’m going to keep doing it until they do it themselves.”