Kirby Smart on this Georgia team’s physicality: ‘They love contact’
ATLANTA — Georgia left no doubt about the direction of its football program with its dominant SEC championship game win over Alabama.
And Kirby Smart left no doubt about how the No. 3-ranked Bulldogs (12-1) planned to proceed on their ascension into the College Football Playoff after their win over the Tide (10-3).
“A couple of them just told me they want to go back and practice tonight, they said they want to get out there tonight and get on a Bloody Tuesday when we get back home,” Smart said in his postgame on-field interview, uncharacteristically caught up on the emotion of the moment.
“That’s the kind of mentality this team has — they want to practice some more, they want to practice some more, they love contact, and we love them.”
Georgia won every phase of the SEC championship game in avenging the 24-21 loss to Alabama earlier this season that snapped its 33-game home win streak.
The Bulldogs, in payback fashion, snapped the Tide’s 17-game win streak in the city of Atlanta and nine-game SEC championship game win streak that included four wins over Georgia that had dated back to a 2008 loss to a Tim Tebow-led Florida team.
The College Football Playoff selection committee will deal out Georgia’s path to a CFP championship via the final rankings, which will come out at noon on Sunday (ESPN).
The Bulldogs will almost surely be the No. 2 or No. 3 seed and play in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 after defending their SEC championship in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in a manner that made Smart uncharacteristically excitable in his on-field postgame interviews.
“They’ve responded in the face of so much adversity, so much criticism, and they just kept getting better and better,” Smart said.
UGA was missing veteran center Drew Bobo, and perimeter receiver Noah Thomas was an unexpected scratch, testing the Bulldogs’ depth at that position with incumbent Colbie Young lost since the last meeting with Alabama to a leg injury.
ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit likened the 2025 SEC championship team’s defensive performance to the national championship Georgia teams of yesteryear.
“Is Nakobe Dean out there? Is Jalen Carter out there? This looks like Georgia defense,” Herbstreit said.
“They are living up to the standard of the Kirby Smart era defense when it comes to winning the line of scrimmage, running to the football, playing with so much confidence. They had to grow up, and they have.”
Offensively, Gunner Stockton was a model of toughness and efficiency in winning the game’s MVP honors. Stockton completed 20-of-26 passes for 156 yards with three touchdown passes along with 13 carries for 39 yards.
“This is awesome, the journey this season has been awesome, being able to play with all the teammates, I love everybody,” Stockton said. “I’m glad we have another road ahead.”
The journey will start where last season’s ended with a 23-10 loss to Notre Dame in the CFP Sugar Bowl quarterfinal in New Orleans.
If Georgia is the No. 2 seed, it will play the winner of the first-round game pitting No. 10 seed (ESPN projects Alabama) against No. 7 seed (ESPN projects Texas A&M) in College Station, Texas, on Dec. 19 or Dec. 20.
If the Bulldogs are the No. 3 seed, they will play the winner of the first-round game between the No. 6 seed (ESPN projects Ole Miss) and the No. 11 seed (projected to be Tulane).
About the Author
Mike is in his 10th season covering SEC and Georgia athletics for AJC-DawgNation and has 25 years of CFB experience. Mike is a Heisman Trophy voter and former Football Writers President who was named the National FWAA Beat Writer of the Year in January, 2018.
