Hungry Hunters: Why Kirby Smart isn't concerned about complacency for the reigning national champion Georgia Bulldogs

ATLANTA — Kirby Smart knew the question was coming, so in a preemptive strike, Georgia’s head coach let everyone listening — in Atlanta and across the country — that the Bulldogs might’ve gotten the bling in 2021 but they’re no Vanilla Ice. 

“We started this thing off last year with the quote: Success comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. Well, we embraced that last year. Guess what? That doesn’t change. For our team, it’s embedded in what we do,” Smart said on Day 3 at SEC Media Days.

“We didn’t build this program on hoping for one-year-wonders or hoping for one opportunity. We built the program to be sustained. You sustain it by what you do every single day.

“This program was built to be here for a long time.”

The Georgia Bulldogs snapped a 40-year drought last season, slaying the dragon that is Nick Saban and Alabama to win the national title for the first time since 1981. A record 15 players were drafted, including four 1st Round picks off a historically dominant defense. 

Georgia can’t top that in 2022, but it can attempt to climb the mountain again. Only a different mountain, with a different team, chasing a new dream. 

Talent isn’t a question at Georgia, but throughout the offseason, Kirby Smart has been prodded with concerns about complacency. A day after ending all 1980s jokes forever, Smart even took the podium in Indianapolis and raised the very issue of potential entitlement and “a sense of disease that’s crept in at Georgia.” 

That’s no longer a concern. 

“I’ll bet you at least 50 people have asked me the question,” Smart said. 

“That does not concern me in the least. To be complacent, you have to have done something and achieved something. The men on this team, for this season, have not done that. They have not. We had 15 players that are now gone to the NFL camps or draft picks. They’re gone. We have some returning players, but they’re hungry as hell.”

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Learning from the mistakes of others

Georgia returns a roster littered with 4- and 5-star recruits, as well as a quarterback in Stetson Bennett, who out-dueled Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young in the title game. So how do the Bulldogs avoid the pitfalls that detailed Florida State, Auburn and LSU — three programs that won a national title but haven’t been the same since?

“We’ve done a lot of studies on how the mighty have fallen. We have skull sessions, 15-minute meetings, 20-minute meetings and breakout groups. We talk about how the mighty have fallen. I’m talking about in business, sports, history. You learn from the mistakes of others,” Kirby Smart said. 

As the defensive coordinator at Alabama, Smart was a key member on the last team that repeated as champions: The 2012 Crimson Tide. But the important lessons might’ve been gleaned from Alabama’s 2010 season, when a roster with Julio Jones, Mark Engram and a slew of other future 1st Round picks lost three games after going undefeated the season prior. Smart, as well as UGA defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, were also members of an 2004 LSU staff that returned a bunch of top NFL Draft picks of a team that went 13-1 and won a title. The Tigers went 9-3 that season, falling well-short of expectations. 

“For us, it really steers down to one cultural belief, that we have a connection that’s greater than our opponent,” Smart said. 

“We’re all going to be tough, we’re all going to be physical in the SEC, but can we be better connected together?”

“One hand washes the others. … One plus one equals three in our program. The connection from me to you is another one,” Georgia senior outside linebacker Nolan Smith explained. 

Connection is evident with the Bulldogs, but Kirby Smart’s messaging about humility, hunger and attention to detail have clearly resonated, too.

“That is one of the big things that we took last year to move a step forward. Connect with your brother and be humble. Don’t have an ego. That’s another thing here, the past is your ego. We can’t control last year. We can’t do anything on last year. We can only look forward. Be where our feet are at, and that’s now.”

‘We are the hunters’

The SEC East is better in 2022, with South Carolina and Tennessee on the rise, Kentucky still a snake in the weeds and Florida looking to bounce-back with Billy Napier. But the Bulldogs will still be the pick Friday in the media’s preseason poll to represent the East in Atlanta come December. 

They’re among the favorites to win the national title again, too, with the third-best odds in the country behind Alabama and Ohio State. So will they approach Saturdays differently with a new bullseye on their backs? 

Absolutely not. A fundamental part of Saban’s famed Process is always remaining the aggressor.

“We are the hunters,” Smith said, something he surely heard from his head coach. 

“People ask the question, ‘How does it feel to be hunted?’ We will not be hunted at the University of Georgia. I can promise you that,” Smart said.

“The huntin’ that we do will be done from us in the other direction. It’s not something that we’re going to sit back and be passive about.

“People say, do you have the talent? Do you have enough talent within your program? We’ve got plenty of talent. What we lack right now is experience.”

A year ago, other than diehard Georgia fans and recruitniks knew who Brock Bowers, AD Mitchell or Kelee Ringo was. Now, they’re household names, with major NIL deals. Smart and Smith both said Georgia has plenty of similar young, hungry underclassmen chomping at the bit to replace Nakobe Dean, Lewis Cine, Jordan Davis, George Pickens and the rest of the dudes now in NFL training camps off the 2021 roster. 

“A lot of guys want to prove that they can replace the other guy. They don’t want to be the other guy, they want to be the next guy,” Kirby Smart said. 

“You look across the board, we had some high-profile players on defense and offense when you count the backs and receivers that we have to replace those guys. The hunger comes from the opportunity the talented players behind them have.

“I’m excited. Complacency is something that happens to people, they don’t look what’s going on. We don’t have that problem. There’s not a day we don’t wake up and think what can we do to make our program better, and our players are doing that right now.”

Lookout. 

Georgia may not repeat in 2022, but the Bulldogs’ program is in no danger of becoming a one-hit wonder. They remain the hungry hunters, this fall and for the foreseeable future.