Kirby Smart shares perspective on sustained success, records for Georgia program

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Georgia’s win over Tennessee Saturday night in Knoxville set records. The 28th straight for the Bulldogs, it tied the all-time SEC mark for the league’s longest winning streak. Their 27 consecutive in the conference is also a record as Kirby Smart’s squad became the first to finish 8-0 in SEC play three straight seasons.

With all that was on the line from a legacy standpoint however, you won’t find Smart celebrating. He’s on to the next one right away.

“I’ve got to go play Tech next week, that’s the perspective I’ve got. I’ve got a lot of respect for Brent [Key] and I know how much this game means to him,” Smart said. “I mean, there will be a time to look back on that and to celebrate that. It’s not right now.”

Smart, who typically takes some pushing to get any sort of reflection out of him, did take some time later on during his postgame press conference to look back a little bit. While the winning is great, it’s not necessarily about that for Smart. He understands that it won’t last forever and that he and his program must have a foundation to fall back on when that time comes. That’s called culture.

“A lot of work, man. A lot of buy-in,” Smart said when asked what the key to sustaining a program in the way Georgia has been able to recently, going 44-1 over the last 45 games. “You know, we spend a lot of time in the offseason building our roster, and I’m not talking about portal kids or recruiting kids. I’m talking about, like, take what we got and make what we got better than what they got.”

“I really believe our culture is our difference,” he continued. “Everybody will say it’s players. I just don’t think that it’s just players. We’ve got good players. We’ve got really good players. But I think there’s a lot to our culture that the kids buy into, and they stay level-headed. We’re not talking about the streak. They’re not worried about the streak. Like I said, it’s going to end, and we’re going to start a new one. But for right now they just keep getting better.”

Smart’s comments continued. He admitted that he probably doesn’t appreciate how hard it is to win, and win consistently. Even with all the advantages Georgia has like an incredible recruiting footprint and support from administration higher up, it’s hard because let-downs happen. Smart said that sometimes it takes conversations with other coaches to help him gain that perspective.

Of course coming from the Nick Saban coaching tree and having spent time with one of the sport’s legends across multiple stops, Smart understands what excellence looks like and how it should be handled. There’s work that goes into making it happen throughout the week, but Saban, 72, has seemed to take a step back to try and enjoy it all a little bit more as the years have gone along.

“It was fun tonight. It’s work during the week. It’s not the stress of the streak or the wins. My wife and son are sitting over there and they’ll tell you, they have to deal with me all week. You get tighter and tighter as the week goes. I’m not comfortable. I’m not going into a game comfortable,” Smart said. “That wears on you in terms of the wanting to be at your best, but you’ve got to relax and know that you’ve done a good job.

“I’ve read what Nick said recently about how much he’s enjoying this team because it’s not about all the stress and stuff. Just enjoy the team,” Smart continued. “You can learn a lot from that, especially a guy that’s done it as long as he has. He’s at the point in his career where he’s like, I’m going to enjoy this. I’m going to enjoy being out there at practice and being around the players and not worry about the expectations that so many of you guys have.”

The expectations for Smart’s squad certainly won’t be going away anytime soon. They’ll look to set themselves apart from the pair of Alabama runs (1978-80, 1991-93) that they tied and secure their 29th straight win this Saturday when Georgia takes on rival Georgia Tech. Then, the SEC Championship Game date with that same Alabama program is already set for December 2nd in Atlanta as the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide compete for the conference crown and a coveted spot in the College Football Playoffs.