Kirby Smart addresses importance of three-peat for Georgia

Kirby Smart recognizes the importance of a possible three-peat for the Georgia Bulldogs in 2023.

One title seemed like it may never happen in Athens at times, and back-to-back seemed like a pipe-dream. Alas, Smart helped make them both come true, and now he has the chance to do something that hasn’t been done in college football in nearly a century.

Ahead of having the chance to make history, Smart joined Rece Davis and Pete Thamel on the College GameDay Podcast, where he elaborated on how he’s handling the pressure of a potential three-peat.

“When you think about how many times it’s been done, I think that’s the precipus you say, ‘Well why is it so hard to do, what makes it so difficult?’ It’s a lot of the same things that make it hard to repeat,” explained Smart. “You get two, that’s not a common feat either. But you know as well as I do, we don’t focus on that, that third one, or trying to get a three-peat. That’s not a focal point for us. We really don’t talk about it. We don’t worry about it. I get the hype around it, because when you think about how little it’s been done, it can be a special thing. But we’ve got a lot of new players. So a lot of those new players are hungry, and you know, my biggest concern right now is fighting complacency. Because you’ve got this senior and junior class, who’ve all won one.

“We had a really interesting speaker come in the other day, Sylvester Croom, and I thought he had great insight and great perspective, having been at Alabama as a player, and he won three consecutive SEC championships, and debatable national championships in a row, because they were voted. But he talked to our team about that, and how he felt like that third year, that there wasn’t a lot of hunger on the upper-end of the leadership, and I thought that was really interesting.”

As expected, Smart is doing everything he can to keep his team’s focus on their goal, and not to get complacent with their standing atop college football. The Bulldogs are going to have a target on their back, and their head coach recognizes that.

Time will tell if Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs can pull off a three-peat, but it’s tough to bet against their potential at this point.