Kirby Smart Planned On Tearing Into Georgia Players During Halftime Of South Carolina Game, But Team's Sports Psychologist Courageously Convinced Him Not To

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The Georgia Bulldogs trailed rival South Carolina 14-3 at halftime during their Week 3 matchup. Most would have assumed that head coach Kirby Smart was going to rip into his team after being embarrassed on its home field for 30 minutes, but as video evidence shows, he took a surprisingly calm approach inside the locker room.

Instead of screaming at the top of his lungs with a tirade littered with f-bombs to get the attention of his players, he didn't yell at all. Smart decided to instill self-belief within his players by laying out a simple plan of living and playing one moment at a time.

One more moment, one more moment, one more moment. That was the gist of Smart's calm, yet passionate message to his players.

While Smart's calm approach with his team at halftime worked with the Bulldogs out-scoring South Carolina 21-0 in the second half, it wasn't the coach's original plan.

According to Georgia running back Jacob Hardie, Smart told him that he had every intention to tear into him and his teammate, but was stopped by a team sports psychologist outside the locker room who convinced him not to.

"Oh, I was about to tear y'all up, but right before I walked in, a sports psychologist for us walked up to me and said 'Don't get on them, y'all got this, just go play-by-play," Hardie told The Players Lounge of Smart.

READ: KIRBY SMART HAS THREE WORDS FOR CRITICS OF GEORGIA’S SOFT SCHEDULE

Not only are props due for the sports psych sharing their opinion with Smart, but they showed some serious courage by simply stepping in front of the coach as he was likely foaming at the mouth heading towards the locker room.

It's safe to say Smart won't take the same calm approach if Georgia is struggling at halftime with UAB this weekend, but hey, this time the easy-going speech worked.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.