Kirby Smart still wants to win a national championship every year.
But the Georgia head coach, who won two of those in his first nine seasons on the job, recognizes that is going to be a more difficult task with how drastically the sport has changed.
“I actually think that it’s a great thing when you win a 16-team SEC conference, and it’s probably one of the best years we’ve had in terms of winning games,” Smart said in a recent interview with Paul Finebaum. “And it is hard to do when you play seven or eight top-10 teams, which we were able to do. But I really don’t get caught up in it. I love the expectation. I embrace that. I think that’s a good thing because if it’s not there, then what are you playing for, you know?”
Last season, Georgia went 11-3 and won the SEC, despite losing starting quarterback Carson Beck in the middle of the SEC Championship game and playing five games against teams that made the College Football Playoff. Not included in that total were Ole Miss and Alabama, two teams that finished just outside the playoff picture. Those games were played away from Athens.
Georgia’s schedule doesn’t figure to be all that easier this year, though it does get Texas, Alabama and Ole Miss all at home. The Bulldogs do have an early season trip to Tennessee, where Gunner Stockton likely will make his first career road start.
The Bulldogs also have an October trip to Auburn, with the Tigers having a bye week before hosting the Bulldogs.
This potentially could be the last season Georgia plays eight SEC games, as the league is weighing the decision to expand to nine conference games if there are changes made to the CFP format.
Last season was the first year of the 12-team playoff. And while Georgia was thrilled to have won the SEC in such a competitive season, there was a price that ultimately had to be paid for traversing such a grueling schedule.
Smart admitted to Finebaum that the SEC Championship game left Georgia beaten up. And while Texas did have to play an extra CFP game because of the loss, it played Clemson at home before then facing Arizona State in Atlanta.
Georgia was rewarded with a game against Notre Dame, a team that was No. 5 in the final CFP ranking but was seeded No. 7. Notre Dame did not have to play in a conference championship game, though it did dispatch Indiana in the first round of the CFP.
“Notre Dame beats us, and Notre Dame had a great team, and they’ve done a great job there,” Smart said. “I’m very pleased with where we were.”
A one-and-one playoff exit did not leave many with the impression that Georgia had a great season. It certainly was more of a battle compared with where Georgia had been in recent seasons. In the three seasons before 2024, Georgia had lost only two games.
The 2024 season was the first time Georgia had lost three times in a season since 2018.
Georgia still figures to have one of the more talented teams in the country for the 2025 season. The Bulldogs will be young in certain spots, but no team has recruited the high school ranks as well as Georgia has in recent years.
Last season served as a reminder of just how much needs to break your way to win a national championship. The Bulldogs caught those breaks in 2021 and 2022. It helped that those teams were more talented.
Time will tell if Smart’s 2025 reaches those same highs. But with the sport of college football changing, as it seems to every offseason now, so do Smart’s goals and expectations for his program.
“Do I want to win a national championship? Absolutely,” Smart said. “But that’s not going to be the be-all and end-all for us. We want to get the most out of every team we can.”
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