Kirby Smart explains fun of starting over this spring following national title

The national championship win is in the rearview mirror for the Georgia Bulldogs, with the 2022 season being a new opportunity for the program. Head coach Kirby Smart will be wanting to focus on what’s ahead and trying to become the first repeat champions in nearly a decade.

Smart appeared on The Paul Finebaum Show on Friday, where he was asked if it was fun to have a new group of guys in the locker room and attempt to start over. He said although the program is going to miss the players off to the NFL Draft, it’s been exciting to see how his team has performed during spring practice.

“It’s been fun, it’s been really exciting,” Smart said. “This is a great group to coach. We don’t have some of those guys that everybody is talking about on NFL Network as the draft draws nearer. We’re missing some of that talent which is a lot of good football players that left the program but the group we have — they’ve been awesome. They practice real hard each day, they do what we ask them to do.

“We’re really young in some spots but we’ve got some valuable experience. I think when you play in a semifinal game and then a championship game, those players that got to play in those moments, there’s not a price tag or value you can put on that kind of experience. They’ve worked really hard and we got a long way to go but we’ve had a good spring.”

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In an attempt to run it back, Smart thinks the experience of playing in a College Football Playoff semifinal and national championship game will help his team moving forward. Especially when going up against programs such as the Alabama Crimson Tide and Michigan Wolverines, that’s an invaluable experience you cannot replicate on the practice field.

Losing players such as Jordan Davis or Nakobe Dean to the NFL Draft certainly hurts. However, when you recruit the way Smart has while in Athens, there are quality players on the depth chart from top to bottom. Replacing star players will take some transition but the talent will be there for Georgia.

Kirby Smart will begin his title defense with a high-profile nonconference matchup against former defensive coordinator Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks. While it might be labeled as a neutral site, the game will be played in Atlanta, GA, a place the Bulldogs have become familiar with over the years.