WATCH: Georgia's Champions Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good morning. Welcome to today’s College Football Playoff champions news conference. We’re joined by University of Georgia Kirby Smart, Offensive Player of the Game Stetson Bennett and Defensive Player of the Game Lewis Cine.

COACH SMART: I’d first like to thank our fan base. I always start every postgame with that. But they were just incredible. They came out and represented the university really well. I thought they impacted the game. Helped us pass rush with the crowd noise.

And then ultimately the players. This is a really special group. Didn’t really start sinking in for me personally until last night, seeing the families of the young men, who we spent so much time in their homes. Seeing Devonte Wyatt, a kid from Towers in Atlanta, just come so far and meant so much to this place.

And seeing all those kids. It really hit home and got really emotional for me watching those guys celebrate with their families, which is what it’s all about. And these two guys, pretty special, too.

We’re honored to be here. Very appreciative of the CFP. The city of Indianapolis has done an incredible job. Had a brief pit stop in Indy where I stayed about three or four months and got cut. I don’t remember much about the place. Didn’t get to see much of it for the last three or four days other than it’s cold. But they’ve been a great host city. They’ve done a tremendous job of taking care of our team and a first-class event.

Q. Coach, could you just speak to what this win means, not just for your team, not just for the University of Georgia, but just people from the state of Georgia that might not have any affiliation of the school but have been life long fans of the Dawgs, and after 40 plus years what this means to them on an individual basis?

COACH SMART: I hope they don’t have to wait that long again. I’ll be honest with you, that’s a long time. I know as a young child, moving from Alabama at the age of 7 or 6, I didn’t know much about Georgia.

I grew up early years in Alabama and the years that I got to come to Georgia, those were the first memories, the ’81-2 teams that didn’t win it but were really special.

I think some of the years we’ve had now, these in-state kids, the people of Georgia embrace and love football. Let’s be honest, the reason the Southeastern Conference is what it is is because the states that encompass the Southeastern Conference love football. And most people love their home school.

That’s not to say I haven’t seen a lot of Alabama tags in our state in recent years, but you love your school and you love your state.

And I think we gave them a lot to be proud of during, the last couple of years have been tough with COVID and different things. I thought that our team demonstrated resiliency, fight, toughness — overcoming tough loss. There were a lot of battle cries throughout the year that our guys really kind of personified for the state and for the people of the state. And that and what the Braves did, made it a special year.

Q. I know like you just mentioned, Coach, there’s a ton of reasons for being proud and excited about winning the national championship. But for each of you, what would be your biggest reason?

LEWIS CINE: I’d say it’s for the guys that we grind with. It was a whole, long season starting with January throughout, and then you’ve got the spring and summer workouts. Those times were not easy at all. So, coaches, the strength coaches, they threw us a lot at us, we adjusted and got stronger, we bonded together as a unit. It’s mostly for the guys in the room that we fought with that made this happen.

STETSON BENNETT: I’ll follow up with what Lew said. We all feel the weight of the state of Georgia on our shoulders. But when you look back in February, January, March, April, May, when people are focusing on basketball or baseball and we’re running in the stadium at 6.00 a.m. And it sucks, and you’re kind of, like, why do we do this?

And the reason is for when I fumble on the 10-yard line and we give up a touchdown and we go back and we score two straight drives, that’s the reason. The toughness, the resiliency, the connection, all that stuff, you know, you kind of wonder why.

But there’s a method to the madness that Coach Smart and all the coaches, Coach Sinclair and everybody who spent years and years in this industry and that stuff, they know how to mold young men.

And what me and Lew and everybody else, all of the players in this program have went through in the past since the natty has gotten us to this point. And you always wonder why are we doing this. And this is why.

COACH SMART: Not to be redundant, it’s about the players in the room. I said that last night. Someone said, remember what you’re fighting for. You’re not fighting for 41 years of history; you’re fighting for the men in the room. And that keeps things in perspective.

But I will say this. A part of me now, being able to look back at least 12, 16, however many hours since before kickoff, there’s a lot of people who have been through Georgia and been through those years.

From Coach Dooley, seeing him after the game it’s very emotional for me to see him. And then Coach Goff who signed me, and Coach Donnan, who coached me, and Coach Richt who I worked for and I have a tremendous amount of respect for and he got so close so many times. There’s a lot of people that it means a lot to. And I, for one, am happy for them, that so many of them are also happy for me.

Q. Obviously it doesn’t get any more special than winning a national championship, but how significant was it for you guys that it came against Alabama and I guess more specifically for Kirby against Nick Saban? What was said between the two of you guys last night?

STETSON BENNETT: I can’t speak for Coach Smart, but it does feel good. Just strictly for this season. You know, we’ll disregard the 0-3 before the season, when I was there.

But the fact that we were undefeated going into the SEC Championship game, favored, and then they whipped us. They beat us straight up.

And we had to look in the mirror. We had to wonder why. We had to fix stuff. And then we did. And then we got to see them again. And there’s still stuff that we struggled with. But at the end of the day, it was a team win and we won the game.

So, you know, at the end of the day it’s the national championship. Does it matter who it’s against? No, not to me. Not really.

LEWIS CINE: Of course, we’re well aware it was Bama. Bama is say world-class caliber team. I can’t talk for Coach Smart, what went with him and Nick Saban, but we knew that Bama has always been at the top. And to beat the team at the top is something really surreal. It’s something that goes down in history and something that I’ll remember forever.

COACH SMART: I think Stetson probably said the part, like, the fact that we got a rematch. It would have left a pretty poor taste in our mouth if we had to go through somebody else.

If we’d beaten them the first time, I wouldn’t have felt as bad. And we would have had an SEC Championship which I always argue is as hard to get is a national championship. I promise you it is because our league is so tough.

But tremendous respect for what they do. They have been — let’s be honest — they’ve been the measuring stick. And I was a part of it for nine years and saw it. And I know the preparation that goes into national championship games.

I mean, he doesn’t lose many national championship games when he has that time to prepare. And he does a really good job.

So to do it and beat them, that’s special. But also I have a tremendous amount of respect for him, the way he runs his program. And really probably one of the best jobs he’s ever done with his team, because they were really young at some positions. And I think they’ve got the best player in college football in Bryce Young, and I saw it firsthand on the field in the SEC Championship.

But to do what he did this year, with that team, I told him after the game, I said I really believe that this was probably the best job you’ve ever done.

And people don’t understand that. Media don’t respect that because they didn’t win the national championship. But the job he did, with that team? Incredible. Incredible.

Q. I just wonder, it was so late getting out of there. What time you got back to the hotel? Have any of you had any sleep? And can you give an idea of what the celebration was like once you were able to get out of there and get all together?

COACH SMART: To start the celebration in the locker room was pretty incredible, to be in there with those men. It really touched my heart to see Roquan Smith, Nick Chubb (indiscernible). Those guys set a really big foundation.

We may not have Lewis Cine here if we didn’t have Roquan Smith, Nick Chubb, and he watches them play in the Rose Bowl and watches them play in Atlanta in a final. And they helped set a foundation. That celebration in the locker room was, first of all, special.

And then getting back to the hotel, the hotel was wild and crazy at the hotel. And then seeing the pictures of Athens, that really moved me to see the number of people on the streets downtown. You just don’t know the impact that it has. That part was special. And then I didn’t get to bed until probably 3:30, 4 o’clock, and back up early.

Q. This program has never won 14 games. You accomplished that. 13 of the 14 wins coming by more than 15 points. When you look back in 10, 15 years on this team, do you think you will be considered one of the greatest?

COACH SMART: Greatest Georgia teams? I would argue that you would say that. There’s only so many that won a national championship, certainly. What I think it will be is a really tremendous group of leaders. These men are going to go out and do something special because they’re built the right way.

They’ve got tremendous character and integrity and a lot of respect for them. The way they did it, and you’re right, there’s a lot of games that maybe hurt us in the SEC Championship because we didn’t get to play enough fourth quarter games. I go back to watching Alabama and A&M, Alabama and Arkansas, Alabama and LSU, Alabama and Auburn. I’m going, man, we didn’t get a lot of those opportunities and didn’t play our best game. But because we had played well, it gave us another opportunity.

And the response of our team after that SEC Championship is what will always stick with me of seeing Julian Rochester bawling in the locker room after he was the same young man bawling after the national championship in 2017. And to see him overcome so many injuries — and he wasn’t a major impact on the game, but he impacted his room. He impacted Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Devonte, Wyatt, because they wanted it for him. And when you want it for people in the room, it makes it a lot more special.

Q. Kirby, you heard both players talk about what they had to go through back in February. I’m just wondering what it was like to hear that sort of as affirmation of your process. And what does it mean for the program in your view moving forward?

COACH SMART: Well, first question, I think one of our mentors, advisors, came and gave a little — I know these guys can probably tell you — it was a very moving speech the day before the game when we have our team meeting to kind of get mentally ready.

And, man, I’m not a very good history buff — can you help me Stetson? I think it was Cortez the Conquerer? He used a history lesson. And he talked about the training of his army to go conquer, I guess it was Mexico. Is that right? You’re supposed to be smarter than me.

LEWIS CINE: The Aztec empire.

COACH SMART: And he trained these men and he went through all these training. And he told the story — everybody’s probably heard it — but he turned to his men and he had to unite them. Had to unite them before they went into battle when they were up against a larger army and wanted to take over this country.

He said, hey, we’re here, we sailed over here, we came on our boats. We’re burning the boats. And everybody’s heard the burning-boat speech. When they burn the boats those guys are, like, there’s no going back. He gave that speech that we were going to burn the boats and go do what we had to do to win this game.

And I thought it was very moving because he related it to you belong here. Lewis, you belong here. Where have you been? Look at what you’ve done. Look where you are, Stetson and what you have done.

He went through a lot of players. Zamir White, a guy they gave zero chance to live past six months and he’s playing in a national championship game.

James Cook lost his father and didn’t get to play in a bowl game last year. Devonte Wyatt, the road he’s taken. He went through every guy.

He did a tremendous job messaging to the players that you belong here, and he validated it by saying it 169 workouts, 110 runs. He went through how many practices we had. He went through every step.

And the players were sitting there going, and there was one workout in the summer where Coach Sinclair took them at 6.00 a.m. and did a really hard lift. Coaches weren’t there. Really hard lift. And they also ran to the stadium and had to run 15 stadiums. And they played video of that workout all week while we were in Athens.

I thought it was very touching and moving that Drew related back to that and you’re ready, and you’re prepared. But the validation I get from hearing those guys talk about those workouts has got to carry over to the next group, because the wind blows a lot stronger at the top. And I’ve seen it.

I don’t know that our team our roster that’s coming back is prepared for what they’re about to see because there’s a sense of entitlement, there’s a sense of the disease that has always crept in at Georgia, is there’s a huge anointment and entitlement that can affect your program. So now it turns for us to another attention of what we’ve got to do to keep it going.

Q. You have taken — people have looked at your career and said, how come he hasn’t won a national championship yet. And yet six years is pretty fast in the grand scheme of things, if you look at history. Do you feel like this was on time? Do you feel like it took you too long? What do you think?

COACH SMART: Well, if you had told me I was second and 26 in overtime I would have thought it took too long. There’s a distinct advantage when you’re in that position and we weren’t able to capitalize.

And you can’t do it, but you take Alabama out of it, I think we’ve had the best team in the country probably two or three times, but the best team in the country doesn’t win the national championship every year. The team that plays the best does.

One of our most talented teams outside of this one was probably the one that lost in the SEC Championship. So there’s a frustration that you deal with and say, man, did we get the most out of them?

But I also know how hard it is to have the breaks and get the breaks and be able to win one of those. And it takes some really good breaks. And we got them this year. And certainly happy.

I don’t know that there is an on time or on schedule because I really would not have defined my career by whether I won a national championship. Every one of you would have, but I would not have because I would have been happy with my wife, my three kids, my parents. And I would have been pumped about all the kids that I got to coach. I wasn’t going to define my career by that, but I know everybody else would.

Q. Stetson and Lewis, you’re going to enjoy in the moment but the looming question of the status of you guys coming back or leaving for the NFL, whatever. What is the time schedule on that decision? And how much of an impact do you think that last night will weigh on your decision?

STETSON BENNETT: We’ll wait a second on that one for me.

LEWIS CINE: Well, for me, I’m just soaking this in for the moment and enjoying the time with everyone because I know some of the older guys won’t be back. And last night’s game, I gave it my all for them because I knew it would be their last.

But for now I’m just enjoying the moment with my team, enjoying the moment with the coach and just soaking this all in. I’ll let whatever decision may be come when the time’s right.

Q. Kirby, we know you’re never complacent. You’ve told us the day you’re complacent, you’re done. But what are some of the areas, off the top of your head? And for the players, how does Kirby keep you guys sharp and motivated going into a long offseason?

COACH SMART: I don’t understand what you’re saying, that I would worry we would get complacent at or areas we need to improve?

Q. As far as what you see leaving this team and going into next year, the people already turning the page.

COACH SMART: It’s right now. We’ll have multiple kids. Probably we’ll have a few kids go into the portal that we’ve had discussions with that held that off, out of respect for the team. I thought that was tremendous. We’ll have that. Everybody will think that’s a terrible thing. But some cases it’s actually a good opportunity for kids.

We’ve got 16 or 17 mid-years that have enrolled. We’ve got to finish off this class. We don’t know how many spots we have because we don’t know what some guys are doing, like Lewis and other guys. There’s a lot of work to be done.

And I know people don’t understand it, but other teams are 10 days up on you because they finished January 1st, your competitors. And you’re going, wait, they’re doing what? We’re trying to win a national championship.

Fortunately, I had a really good mentor, teacher of dealing with that because he’s in it every year. But you fall behind because you’re trying to manage your roster. My biggest concern in terms of complacency is the guys coming back. We’ll lose some really good players on defense. We’ve got a lot of guys coming back on offense. But we’ll have to replace some good talented backs as well.

Q. Stetson, since you’re going to wait a while, not answer that right away, what are the factors you will consider before deciding whether to come back?

STETSON BENNETT: I don’t want to spill all my personal stuff out here on the table. So we’ll keep that between me and Coach Smart.

Q. What was the best part of last night after the game was over for you guys, personally? What moment that you might put away in a time capsule and freeze the moment that spoke to you the most after the game?

LEWIS CINE: I think it’s probably when the confetti came out, when everyone just ran on the field knowing the game was over. That’s kind of a picture that will be ingrained in my head forever.

It’s kind of dope, in my opinion. And years ahead I can just bring my kids and my family over and be, like, I was on this team. I helped and I was a part of something great.

A lot of people already know, but last night we made history. The opportunity, the chance that we got to win and the person we did it for, Coach Smart, he sacrificed a lot for us. He sacrificed a lot for his family. And we didn’t want anything more than to win it all for him.

STETSON BENNETT: My moment was — so we go down, we score a touchdown. We get the ball back. We go down. We’re up by eight. They get the ball back, and I’m walking on the sideline.

I’m telling everybody on the offense, everybody’s pumped up. We just scored. Threw a touchdown to Brock. Everybody’s pumped up, you know? And I’m telling everybody, hey, listen, be ready for two-minute drive to win the national championship. Listen, think about the numbers. Think about everything that you have to do.

And then Kelee catches the pick and it just hit me. And as soon as — because I’m watching on the big screen; I can’t see. I’m not that tall. I’m not looking on the field. I’m looking on the big screen. And Kelee catches the pick.

And it just — I mean, just everything, I mean, I can’t describe the feeling. I tried not to put, you know, the Bulldog Nation on my shoulders because I can’t carry that weight. But when Kelee caught that pick — and I didn’t even see him score the touchdown. I just saw him catch the pick — it just lifted off my shoulders. I just started crying. The emotions just came over me. It was probably a little bit pre– it was probably a little too early because football is crazy.

But that was when it all hit me, the wave of emotion. I can’t describe it. I wasn’t expecting it. It caught me off guard. But that was when it set in.

Q. Stetson, Pierce County is small, tight knit. They had a Stetson Bennett Day on Friday. What has the support meant to you?

STETSON BENNETT: Well, I didn’t — I didn’t even know there was a Stetson Bennett Day because I haven’t been texting people back. I hadn’t been calling people or talking to people for like two weeks because I had a pretty big game to prepare for.

But people were telling me there were videos going around, Stetson Bennett Day. I was like, what? I guess everybody was excited for the national championship.

But I love that small town. That’s home, 912 — Savannah, Nolan, everybody, Clay, everybody, we’ve got so many people from 912. And it’s the best area code in Georgia by far.

But Blackshear, I think there’s two, there’s probably four red lights. But it’s just every small town, just like Coach Smart — everybody who grew up in South Georgia or a small town knows what it’s like to grow up in a small town. Everybody knows everybody.

You make a mistake, everybody knows about it. If you’re successful, everybody knows about it. If you’re good to people, everybody knows about it.

So when you’re raised in a good family, in a small town, like I was, then you don’t know what the world is outside of that. But you do know once you leave there how to treat people. And I’m so proud of the place that I’m from and what it’s taught me. And I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them.

COACH SMART: Let me share this quick tidbit. I tried really hard to help Stetson getting ready for the game with defense and what’s going on. I had to ask him, could I screen shot something to him, because I wasn’t sure the flip phone would get a screen shot.

He said, no, Coach, it won’t come through. But you can e-mail me. I said all I can do is a screen shot so we’ve got a problem here. I can’t e-mail like you can.

And so we had to end up just talking actually on the phone or in person because the screen shot wasn’t going to work out with me.

Q. Earlier, Lewis was talking about sacrifices that you make with your family. You’ve got three small children. You spend a lot of time at the offices, a lot of time recruiting, et cetera. Does last night make it worth it, all the sacrifices that you’ve made?

COACH SMART: I’ll be honest with you, if things didn’t go well last night, it’s still worth it. It’s worth it because of the relationships. I know that the title and the rings and the trophy means so much to so many at Georgia, but it’s the relationships I do it for.

When those stop happening, you lose your passion for it. To see these guys, see these guys go to be successful and the joy I have being around the players — and look every bump we’ve had made that much better last night. Don’t think for a second if we had not been through with Alabama, would it have meant that much? Probably not quite the same.

So the highs and lows, the ebbs and flows of life in general of football are what makes it what it is.

But my wife, Mary Beth, who is in the back of the room, and my kids make tremendous sacrifice. I understand that’s a huge part of it.

Sometimes I wonder, did this happen, did I get this job too early because I wanted to spend so much of my time with my kids and my family and raise them and be at all my kids’ sports because that’s what my dad was.

That’s what I’ve always wanted to do. And I’m in the formative years, and I’m gone a lot. And that hurts me and pains me because I want to bring them in and get them to see everything. But, you know, they’re getting at the age where they’ll be in high school next year, my twins. And Andrew is nine.

And these guys have been so good to them that I feel like they’re part of our family. And if they couldn’t be up there all the time, we didn’t have that kind of working environment, it wouldn’t be as pleasurable for me to be the coach at Georgia.

Q. Stetson, I want a reaction to this. I talked to Aaron Murray the week before the game. And he said if Stetson wins this game he’ll go down as the greatest quarterback in Georgia history. Wonder if you had a reaction to that.

STETSON BENNETT: Well, all I know is in 2012, when we decided to go fastball, throw a fade and Chris Conley caught that ball on the 3-yard line, I cried my eyes out.

And then the national championship was basically ceremony after that. That was the national championship, The SEC was.

I mean, Murray has 13,000 yards, 130-something touchdowns. You can’t replace that. What he’s done for this university — he’s a nice guy, great guy, a good friend of mine, and I appreciate that. But, no, I mean in my opinion well I’m not going to give who I think is the best.

COACH SMART: Good decision. You’ll keep your friendship.

STETSON BENNETT: I wouldn’t put myself at the top of the list. I would put Murray in front of me. That’s what I would say.

Q. Kirby, you mentioned your parents earlier. Your dad was a successful high school coach at both ends of the state for a long time. Do you hear from him around games like this or championships? And what does a game like this and a win like this do for you when you go talk to high school coaches and you go around the state?

COACH SMART: First off, my dad does not say one word. I mean, he literally wants to impart zero knowledge. I mean, if it is, it’s a dry quip. Like after we won the national championship at Alabama and shut whoever it was down, shut them out, LSU, and he just said — at Bainbridge High School, if you got a shutout, the whole team got chicken pox. He said I’m going to give you chicken pox for this.

It was never like the advice you think somebody would give you. He just does not want to impart that. The part that I appreciate about him, he wants to be on the sideline because he doesn’t want to hear what all the fans have to say and everybody else and all the bickering and complaining that he’s had to hear all his life.

He’s like, I just can’t listen to all that. But he does not ever say anything. Doesn’t try to scheme or help or do anything.

So I appreciate that because I get enough of that from everybody else in the world. But his relationship with me is special because he sacrificed a lot for our family. And he worked, to me, way harder than I do. Not the same kind of pressure. But he was just not home; he was always working.

A lot of great high school coaches in our state and that’s the reason we’re on this podium today is because I’m in a very, very fertile high school area. And the relationship — bet I got 150 texts from high school coaches last night that were so happy that we did it for Georgia, because there’s a lot of pride in the state of Georgia, high school football.

Look, Alabama had good players last night from the state of Georgia out there playing. We got a lot of good players from the state of Georgia. The state of Georgia is very well coached, very well run, great organization, and great leaders. As long as that stays the case, we’ll be able to feed into that and grow our program.

Q. Kirby, you talked about seeing the scenes back in Athens. Was that seeing it on TV or scrolling on your phone or did someone show it to you? For Lewis and Stet was there a moment when you got back to the hotel last night or this morning that kind of sticks out to you?

COACH SMART: Mine first, we were actually on the bus, and Sinclair brought the bus back to the hotel. And he brought a phone over and said, look at Athens. And I was blown away. First thing I thought of was widespread panic in ’94 or whatever it was.

I was, like, there’s no — there’s people on signs. There’s people on poles. You can’t see the street. I didn’t even know where it was. But was pretty blown away. Hopefully everybody was safe.

Q. Any moment from last night when you got back to the hotel or this morning that kind of sticks out?

LEWIS CINE: I was just happy to lay in that bed. But when I woke up this morning I felt like I got hit by a train.

COACH SMART: He had some big hits last night. Major collisions.

LEWIS CINE: But I’d say it’s definitely — it’s just really seeing my family after the game, seeing the people I love celebrating with me, hugging me, kissing me, all that stuff. That was one big part I remember, one big part I will cherish.

STETSON BENNETT: I planned a postgame celebration my senior year when we were playing in the state championship in baseball, when we swept through the entire playoffs, then we lost. So I don’t do that anymore at all. At all. I had several texts throughout the week about what’s going to happen, and I shut that down immediately. It didn’t matter who it was.

It could have been high school buddies. It could have been high school buddies, it could have been former GCs at Coke, I don’t do that. I don’t plan for that. I don’t do anything. But when we got back to the hotel and everybody was in there and Lewis and Nakobe and DK and Zamir and Cook, they’re all around me, and we’re sitting there and everybody is just celebrating, having a good time.

It’s almost — because it’s hard to transition from playing the game and getting ready to play another game. It’s almost like that weight was lifted off and there is not another game to prepare for after this. We won it all. So that was special.

Q. Obviously the pain of second and 26, that happened, that lives, but does winning this game last night numb some of that pain when you see that highlight, will that, say, hey, we got them back a few years later?

COACH SMART: I don’t know if that pain will ever be numb because you put so much into those years, it passes and you hate it for the people that were in that locker room and part of it. Certainly I don’t know that “vindication” is the word, it’s not about that when it’s about Alabama. I just have so much respect for their program and the way they do things, that it’s great competitors.

It’s like when Michael Jordan is going against the best there is, when LeBron is going against Kobe, I enjoy that moment and I respect teams and coaches that do it the right way. And those two teams last night were titans clashing going at it, the physical nature of that game in the fourth quarter, so proud of our team because there were people that doubted our conditioning level. They doubted that we could finish in the fourth quarter.

And the Alabama games in the past didn’t help with that. And they did that. They overcame that. They really were more physical and dominant in the fourth quarter. And that was the difference in the game and probably what made me the most proud of the group.