Kirby Smart explains how this Georgia team was 'just different'

Much has been made about the amount of talent Georgia lost after winning the 2021 national championship and how the Bulldogs managed to win another one this year. Kirby Smart said that spoke to the mentality of his group this year — although he’s not ready to talk about a three-peat.

Smart credited his team for not getting complacent and responding to adversity throughout the year. He said that’s what made Georgia so much “different” this time around, and it wasn’t because the Bulldogs pulled off an undefeated season for the first time since 1980.

They’re “different” because because they didn’t rest on their laurels.

“It’s human nature to relax,” Smart said. “It’s human nature to take the easy route. And I can be as guilty of that as anyone. But it wasn’t this team’s nature to relax. This team, this wasn’t as hard a job as people made it seem because of the people we recruited — not because of talent, but because of what they were, like the DNA inside of them. These dudes, this team was different. This team was just different. And every time they were backed against the wall they came out scratching, clawing. Like, if we had a bad practice, we’d have a great practice. They responded to everything.

“The team’s makeup — I didn’t talk about this enough last night. Our team GPA was the highest we’ve ever had in, like, 15 years at Georgia. Georgia’s not easy. Georgia’s hard academically. So when you have people that do well in school, they care about each other. I mean, Georgia’s not getting easier academically. You have a chance at success. And these guys bought into that.”

Kirby Smart: ‘The next one’ will be ‘much tougher’

With back-to-back titles under his belt, Georgia could have the ingredients for a third title next year as Smart dips into the transfer portal. However, just like this season, another title isn’t guaranteed.

In fact, he thinks a three-peat would be even harder to achieve than a repeat.

“Starting to think about the next one, I do think it’s going to be much tougher,” Smart said. “And I do think we’re going to have to reinvent ourselves next year because you can’t just stay the same. Like these two guys up here [Javon Bullard and Brock Bowers], they’re coming back. And we have a lot of guys, in my opinion, that are going to come back and it’s easy to get comfortable. And comfortable does not win.