'Assume Nothing' mantra providing reset for Georgia in 2024

ATHENS, Ga. — It’s not often the last few years that Georgia has lost football games. In eight seasons as the head coach, Kirby Smart owns a 94-16 record. Take away his first season and that mark is 86-11. Since the start of the 2020 COVID season, Smart and Georgia are 50-4 with just two losses since November 7 of that campaign.

Georgia’s most recent loss, a 27-24 defeat at the hands of Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship Game, has stuck with the Bulldogs. It kept them out of the College Football Playoffs and prevented a potential three-peat. It ended the longest winning streak in SEC history at 29 games. It also has provided a reset in Athens of the mentality.

“Coach Smart’s theme, he said it at SEC Media Days, was ‘Assume Nothing.’ We’ve been preaching that daily since we’ve been in camp,” Georgia tight ends coach Todd Hartley said. “It’s been almost like a reset button for everybody. ‘Hey, let’s start fresh and not assume that the seniors know it or the juniors know it. Let’s coach and teach to the lowest common denominator in every room and build the foundation from the bottom up again. Don’t assume that we’re already there, that we’re already on third base because we’re not.’ It’s been a fresh start for the coaches, the players, just embracing that mantra of ‘Assume Nothing.'”

He would continue with his comments, adding that the way Smart has built the Georgia program is so process oriented that the only thing its members possibly can think about is the next step. Yes, a National Championship is the goal, but what must they do on that particular day to best position themselves for success? That’s what they’re thinking about.

Hartley isn’t the only assistant that admitted to feeling a sense of reset. Defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann, who’s been in Athens the entirety of Smart’s time, talked about simplifying what they are teaching. New safeties coach Travaris Robinson, who was on the opposite side of that SEC Championship Game outcome, sees it too.

“We just like to challenge them because growth in anything you do comes from challenging yourself. You have to be detailed. You have to be a clear communicator,” Schumann said. “Coach Smart talks about assuming nothing. As a teacher, you can’t assume the people you’re delivering the message to are understanding what you’re saying unless you get that communication back and forth, so I think those elements are important.”

“Kirby and Coach Schumann have done a really good job of changing some of the things that we did and making it not as complex, and I think our guys are able to play faster because of that,” Robinson added. “… I think we did a really good job, Coach Schumann and Coach Muschamp and the rest of the defensive staff, of doing a great job of compartmentalizing the calls … We have a bunch of calls where the STAR doesn’t have to worry about, if they’re going fast, he’s going to the field. So we’ve got some different things to get guys, younger guys, more guys on the field to go out and execute and I think they’ve done a really good job of shrinking the system.”

So, for Smart, his staff and his team, the mantra means a fresh start. The results of the past aren’t indicative of those of the future. Expectations don’t mean a thing, and wins in 2024 must be earned.

Georgia was named the preseason No. 1 team in the Coaches Poll last week and about two hours after publication of this story, it’s likely the AP Poll will produce the same result. However, as you’d expect, it’s not a talking point in Athens. Instead, they’re not paying attention to it, assuming nothing and focusing on themselves ahead of a season opener against Clemson later this month.