Kirby Smart assures reporters his team’s expectations are in check

Kirby Smart wants the college football world to know external expectations mean nothing to Georgia.

While the Bulldogs may be theorized to be a top team in the country once again, Smart assured reporters that his expectations for his team are in check, even after a 49-3 victory to open the season.

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“Expectations are definitely already in check, don’t have to worry about that,” began Smart. “Externally — we don’t listen. That’s the key word you said. Externally there’s expectations every year. We embrace expectations. We hunt. We go do the best job we can, and if it falls short, it falls short. But I don’t look at it from the expectation standpoint. I look at it like, what can we do better? How do we improve? How do we get more players to play winning football, because everyone in this room knows we’re going to lose somebody. Somebody’s going to be injured throughout the year, and how do we get them better.

“The expectation I have is for our guys to play at their best, and for our coaches to prepare at their best. I think our guys really did that this game.”

Nevertheless, the Bulldogs will be expected to be among the best in college football continually, and Saturday didn’t do anything to change the public perception. At least Kirby Smart knows how to steer the ship and keep his team’s head on straight.

Kirby Smart shares postgame message to Dan Lanning after Georgia’s 49-3 victory over Oregon

After Georgia dominated against Oregon in the season opener, Kirby Smart shared his postgame message to Ducks’ coach Dan Lanning on the field.

Lanning took over as coach of Oregon, leaving behind his role at Georgia, and the Bulldogs got the better of him in his first time back. Georgia won 49-3 in the season opener, and Smart said afterwards that there was still room to improve as a defense.

“Just that I love him,” explained Smart. “Keep his head up, keep fighting. And we got some of the players we got because of him. He helped recruit them.

“So that’s always hard when you make that transition, but he’ll do a great job at Oregon.”

Evidently, there’s still plenty of respect between Kirby Smart and Dan Lanning — that just goes out the window when you’re across the field from each other on Saturday.