The Georgia football team is faster than years past and getting faster thanks to players who dominated in high school track.

Speed is a necessity, but it’s not enough. These track guys have to be able to play football.

Which they can.

Sure, there are differences, but for those connected to both sports, the competition is everything.

“I always thought of it as football – because I love football – bottled up into 10 seconds,” said running back Carlton Thomas. “It’s intense man. I can remember being down in the blocks, even if it was a race I knew I could probably win, and just being nervous with my heart beating. Ba-bum, ba-boom, ba-bum, and then that gun goes off. For those 10 seconds it’s pure adrenaline.”

Forget heavy-set players noted for strength and durability. Speed now reigns supreme.

Ask some Bulldog players about high school track – it’s serious business. One name on the team quickly separates itself: freshman cornerback Branden Smith.

Smith ran the fifth fastest 100m – 10.56 seconds – in Georgia high school history as a junior at Washington High.

He finished second in the race. His competitor that day, D’Angelo Cherry, runs track at Mississippi State. He’s not on a football field like Smith.

It’s Smith’s combination of track speed and football skills that make him valuable.

Straight-line speed is nice, but without the ability to consistently catch, run, pass, or cover and tackle, it’s worthless to football coaches. You can’t just throw a jersey on a track star and expect greatness.

It just doesn’t work.

“Everybody says that about Usain Bolt,” Smith said. “He’s the fastest man in the world right now. He runs with amazing speed right now. Everybody says put him in some football pads and see how he does. All that’s different. When you put on the pads, you have extra weight and, you know, some people don’t have football speed and track speed.”

And that’s the red flag phrase: Track speed versus football speed.

Bolt ran the 100m in 9.58 at the World Championships in August. That’s a world record. But he hasn’t tried to play football at a serious level.

NFL Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice racked up a record 23,546 all-purpose yards in his career, doing so while reportedly running a 4.71 40-yard dash.

Rice didn’t have otherworldly speed, but he is arguably the most successful football player ever.

So what’s the deal?

Some have track speed, and some have football quickness. Georgia legend Herschel Walker had both.

He ran the 100m in 10.22 while at Georgia. You know what he did on the football field.

“Speed is speed. In football, speed will help you, but it really all depends on the angle of the defense,” said freshman receiver Rantavious Wooten. “You can run past people, I mean, but if they have a better angle on you, you’ll get caught.”

Nowhere else is there more high school track competition than in Florida, where Thomas, Wooten and safety Bryan Evans ran.

“Oh man, it’s amazing. You haven’t seen speed until you’ve been down there,” Thomas said. “Just being down there, you think you’re fast, and you see other guys just running. I just loved being down there, being with that type of competition, testing myself every day to get better.”

Evans once raced in a heat with Walter Dix, who won the bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

“You know, I came in fourth, but I was getting beat by people who are in the Olympics now,” Evans said.

That’s some serious heat. Looking back on those lineups, seeing current Georgia football players running alongside Olympians and collegiate track stars is an astounding thought.

“I mean it’s a good experience because everyone you’re going to race is fast,” Wooten said. “Every track meet you’ve got to come out running, sizing everybody up and getting after it. That really helped me because you’ve got to come to compete. You can’t go out there saying, ‘Oh, I’m the man, I’m going to do this, or do that.’ Nah. You’ve got to go out there with the mindset that you’re going to do whatever to win that race.”

Of course it didn’t take long for the competitive spirit to come out. Smith was a consensus to win the 100m if the fastest guys on the team were to toe the line.

And the 200m?

According to players polled, it’s 6-foot-4 wide receiver A.J. Green’s race to lose.

“He’s a long strider,” Smith said. “You know I think you’ve got to increase your speed as that race goes on. With his long legs he does it.”

But the fantasy didn’t stop there. A 4×100 relay was drawn up.

Four guys each run 100m, passing a baton at the conclusion of each turn. Obviously you want the four fastest individuals to comprise the team.

Names were thrown around, but it quickly escalated to a race between the defense and the offense.

The defensive unit agreed to feature cornerback Prince Miller, Cuff, Smith and Evans. Cornerback Brandon Boykin was right in the mix, but to serve the purpose, he’s an alternate.

The defense wasn’t lacking confidence.

“We would kill them. Easy. No questions asked,” Evans said.

“We would dust them,” Cuff said. ‘There’s no way they would come close.”

The offensive team, consisting of Thomas, who said he never lost in the 200m, Green, Wooten and running back Richard Samuel took the humble approach.

“I don’t know; those guys are running now,” Thomas said. “Competition makes competition. I never back down from the race. I would definitely go out there and run with them if they want.”

“It’d be something to look at,” Wooten said. “It’d be a great competition. I don’t know – all them guys are fast.”

So we may never know who would win this dreamed up scheme – it would come down to the handoff according to Smith.

But the fact that the players played along proves how much pride they take in sprinting, being fast and, ultimately, running toward respect.

Track speed and football speed are different, but it’s the winner-take-all mentality that can connect the two for success.

And these guys have it.