TAMPA, Fla. - Kirby Smart has already built Georgia into a power that stacks up with just about anybody in the sport. Four SEC titles.
Back-to-back national championships in 2021-22. A run that looks a lot like the kind of machine Nick Saban used to run at Alabama.
And yet, the Bulldogs are still chasing the one thing that has eluded them since those titles: a return to the CFP championship game.
At SEC Media Days on Tuesday, Smart was asked about the idea that Georgia is “not where it used to be.” He didn’t flinch.
“I think you forget we also lost to an SEC team (Ole Miss) within the playoffs, so it's another tribute to the fact we won the SEC,” Smart said. “Because we beat that team, and then won the SEC Championship and turned around and lost to an SEC team that was a really good football team, and obviously one of the top four teams in the country, especially at the end year with the way they were playing.
“I don't get hung up a lot on just the finish. I like to look back and say, ‘OK, what did we do well in those games, and what did we do poorly and how do we improve on it? That's no differently than I do Week 5, Week 6, Week 7.”
That kind of answer fit the tone of Smart’s day in Tampa. He talked plenty about the physical edge Georgia will need to make another championship push, but he also kept circling back to process, detail and how the Bulldogs can keep sharpening themselves.
Georgia opens defense of its SEC championship Sept. 19 in Fayetteville with an 11 a.m. game against Arkansas. That kicks off a nine-game stretch that includes a neutral-site meeting with Florida in Atlanta, the first time the rivals will not play in Jacksonville, Florida, since 1995. The next two games in that series will be at Mercedez-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa while Jacksonville’s EverBank Stadium goes through significant renovations.
Smart also revealed that Georgia spent part of the winter studying the culture of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who won the 2025 NBA championship.
“We study successful programs all the time,” Smart said. “If you’re not studying how other people are doing it and you’re just fixated on your own team and your own roster, I think you’re missing out.”
The Bulldogs found a few lessons that translated cleanly to football. Linebacker Raylen Wilson pointed to the Thunder’s work on loose balls.
“The stat line we were going over is they had the most loose balls,” Wilson said. “Like they recovered the most loose balls and to take that back to football, that’s just effort.
“We went over that and it was like, man, you can’t coach that. That’s just them wanting to do that. That’s effort and if the whole team gives that type of effort, obviously there’s no telling what you can do.”
Center Drew Bobo said the Thunder’s approach stood out because of how little anyone seemed to care about individual credit.
"We watched their presser a good bit after they won the championship," Bobo said, "and just how not one guy was trying to take recognition, but they tried to pass it on to everyone else, give the microphone away and stuff like that."
Smart agreed with that takeaway.
“It's very unique what the Thunder was doing, especially when they won the championship, in terms of leading in so many categories, but most importantly selflessness. That's what we try to emulate.”
The Georgia coach also leaned into the larger role he now occupies in the SEC and in college football. The Valdosta, Georgia, native sounded a lot like the man he spent years working under, using familiar Saban language about “consistency of performance” and “process.” Smart even called Saban “the greatest college football coach in the history of all of college football, and I don’t think you can even debate it” while repeating one of Saban’s familiar reminders about evaluating teams from the inside out.
Since Georgia’s back-to-back titles, no SEC team has broken the Big Ten’s run of three straight CFP championships by Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana. If Smart gets the Bulldogs back to the top, his own place in the sport’s conversation will only get louder - and the comparisons to Saban will only grow.
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