Georgia Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart, Dawgs: "We Can't Look Behind Us"
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ATLANTA - Georgia Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart and a trio of players from UGA descended on Media Days here Wednesday.
Fresh off curious comments about retiring that were reported Tuesday, Kirby focused on what his team will have accomplish before the 2022 season. After leading the Bulldogs to the national championship last season, the Bulldogs have +350 odds to win the national championship again this upcoming season according to FanDuel.
“Every time someone tells me congrats on the national championship and there have been a gazillion of those, I tell myself each week, this week I’m going to call three more recruits,” Kirby told reporters Wednesday.
Quarterback Stetson Bennett, linebacker Nolan Smith and offensive lineman Sedrick Van Pran-Granger represented the Dawgs in college football’s biggest preseason spectacle. The Dawgs are coming off the program’s first national title since 1980. The 33-18 win over No. 1 Alabama in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game is in the rearview mirror.
"We can't look behind us - Behind us is our ego,” Smith said.
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The Bulldogs open the 2022 season at Mercedes-Benz Stadium against Dan Lanning’s Oregon Ducks. Two weeks later SEC play starts in Columbia against Shane Beamer’s Gamecocks. Tuesday the former Georgia assistant praised what Kirby has done with the Dawgs.
“Georgia is at a level they have never been at right now,” Beamer said.
That statement is true when talking about the modern era of the SEC (since 1992). The Bulldogs placed a record 15 players in the 2022 NFL Draft, so newcomers will have to emerge for the Dawgs - particularly on the defensive side of the ball.
Georgia is expected to be picked to win the SEC East later this week, and is also expected to be picked as the runner up to national-title favorites Alabama. The two programs squared off twice last season. Either Georgia or Alabama have played in each of the SEC Championship Games since 2014.
“Coming up short stings a lot. That has been fueling us,” Heisman Trophy-winning Alabama quarterback Bryce Young said Tuesday.
“I can promise you this: We are going to do everything we can to win (the national title) again,” Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett said Wednesday.
The two programs are not scheduled to meet in the regular season. The SEC Championship Game is scheduled for December 3, 2022 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.