Georgia is going to be a younger team in 2025. Coach Kirby Smart has said as much at various points this offseason.
But Smart doesn’t necessarily see that as a bad thing. Especially when last season’s team had plenty of veterans.
“We got a new team, new energy, young,” Smart said in an interview with commentator Paul Finebaum of SEC Network. “We lost a lot of offensive and defensive linemen, like eight or nine, really good offensive, defensive linemen. When you lose those, you either replace them with guys that are vets or you replace them with youth and fire, passion and energy. And that’s what we’re counting on, is having guys that have fire, passion and energy and play really hard.”
Smart hopes that a younger Georgia team has something to prove. It certainly has plenty of doubt, in a way previous and more experienced Georgia teams haven’t faced.
Georgia entered last season as the No. 1 team in the preseason AP Top 25. That likely won’t be the case entering this season, as most early Top 25s have Georgia just outside the top five.
The younger players on this team know they have a lot to live up to, especially as only 11 players on this year’s roster were on the 2022 national championship team.
“Last year, we had a lot of veteran guys,” wide receiver Dillon Bell said. “I say this year, there’s a lot of young guys on the team, and everyone’s trying to adapt. A lot of people are picking up new roles to do, and we just gotta adapt and live up to the standard that the guys in the past have set.”
Recent college football history would suggest that you need an older team with players bypassing the NFL draft to win a national championship.
Ohio State was built that way in 2024. So was Michigan in 2023. The 2021 Georgia team had 24 seniors on it, seven more than the 2025 team.
Georgia players noted this spring, however, that the veteran attitude may have worked against them last year.
That certainly was the case on the offensive line, which had five players who were in either their senior or fourth-year junior seasons.
Tate Ratledge, Dylan Fairchild and Jared Wilson all were drafted, while Xavier Truss signed as an undrafted free agent with the Denver Broncos. Only Micah Morris returns to the offensive line group this season.
“I think that sometimes we were more worried about not failing than succeeding,” offensive tackle Monroe Freeling said this spring. “And I think we thought we were more just senior-heavy, so I think we thought we were there. But I really think that we should have focused more on our fundamentals.”
The offensive line wasn’t the only position that felt that way about last season. Tight end Oscar Delp, who will be an important piece on this team, acknowledged having one foot out the door last season.
Morris, Earnest Greene and Drew Bobo are the only fourth-year players on the offensive line this season.
Greene is looking to bounce back after an injury-plagued 2024 season. Morris and Bobo have a combined seven career starts, giving them plenty to prove in 2025.
Sophomore safety KJ Bolden finds himself on the other end of the spectrum from Morris and Bobo. He saw plenty of playing time last season as a freshman.
In 2025, he’s eager to step into a leadership role for Georgia, as the Bulldogs have to replace NFL draftees Malaki Starks and Dan Jackson at safety. Starks was a three-year starter at Georgia, while Jackson was a sixth-year senior at Georgia.
More so than playing time, Bolden is eager to fill a bigger leadership role that isn’t normally afforded to a sophomore.
“I would say I feel a little weird, but I really don’t,” Bolden said this spring. “I pray for moments like this, to just be a leader in one of the rooms at Georgia. So just being able to take over that leader role, just pushing the guys every day, cuz I know what the standard is here. And I know what the standard is gotta be, so let’s go out of the way. So just, I don’t know, it feels great though, for sure.”
The same could be said for other sophomores, such as inside linebackers Chris Cole and Justin Williams and running back Nate Frazier. They’re all hoping to take advantage of the veteran void at the top of the Georgia roster this coming season.
With the roster turnover being what it is, the situation at Georgia likely will be the norm moving forward — and not just in Athens. Top teams such as Ohio State, Texas and Oregon also are dealing with significant roster turnover entering this season.
As the transfer portal continues to churn through rosters, it’s going to have teams skew younger and younger moving forward.
Smart understands that will be the case with the 2025 team. But instead of bemoaning that fact, he’s leaned into some of the benefits of having a younger team, one that is eager to prove itself and show its capable of playing up to the reputation of past Georgia teams.
“Fire, passion and energy. That’s what we’re looking for out of those kids,” Smart said. “A lot of times the guy that plays hard is better than the guy that just has the most talent, and we’re trying to get more of it.”
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