Kirby Smart on high expectations for Georgia: 'We just don't pay attention to it'

College football season is right around the corner, and fans shouldn’t be surprised to see Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs at or near the top of every preseason ranking heading into the new year.

According to Smart, his squad doesn’t concern themselves with those types of numbers. After all, Georgia has proved themselves and then some as they’ve compiled a 42-2 record over the past three seasons

“I don’t feel like we’re familiar with it, because we just don’t pay attention to it,” Smart said after the first day of fall practice. “You know, you guys are probably more familiar with it than we are in terms of, like, ‘Well, that’s the expectation. They’re going to start the season top five, or they’re going to be predicted to win the east or west when it was there. They’re going to be predicted to win the SEC.’

“I’ve never honestly paid any attention to it, and we don’t talk about it as a team. So the expectation is we’re going to develop and worry about today’s day, and not really. We don’t think about that.”

Of course, given that the Bulldogs have won 46 of its last 48 games and have back-to-back College Football Playoff National Championships to prove it. Almost no task has been too tall for the Bulldogs over the last three years, and similar success is expected in 2024.

Georgia returns quarterback Carson Beck, who many analysts have as the top quarterback in next year’s NFL Draft, and is expected to have one of the toughest offensive lines in the country to back him up.

Beck threw for 3,941 yards, 24 touchdowns and six interceptions in 2023. If he wasn’t comfortable then — the Bulldogs could take the new-look SEC by storm this coming season. After all, many way-too-early mocks have Beck as one of the first quarterbacks taken in the 2025 NFL Draft for a reason.

Based on the Bulldogs’ spring game performance, Georgia’s offense may reflect that projection this season. 14 different wide receivers had three or more touches during the game, in part leading to Beck throwing for over 300 yards during the contest. Things are looking up for the Georgia offense in 2025 despite losing the likes of Ladd McConkey and Brock Bowers to the NFL.

The Bulldogs will begin their 2024 regular season campaign in a blockbuster kickoff game against Clemson in Atlanta. After a tune-up against Tennessee Tech, they’ll begin SEC play against Kentucky during Week 3.

For now, however, Smart is focused on getting his squad through fall camp.

“We’ve got good depth in camp,” he said. “And we’re looking forward to creating some mental and physical adversity through the heat and through practices that we can kind of start to form our team”