On 13 occasions in the 15 seasons Mark Richt was Georgia's football coach, the Bulldogs entered bowl preparation knowing they were Peach State champions.
Kirby Smart will not experience that feeling in his first go-around.
Smart's Bulldogs were in position to extend Richt's mastery of Georgia Tech by establishing a 27-14 lead entering the fourth quarter Saturday at Sanford Stadium. The final 15 minutes, however, will not be forgotten soon after the Yellow Jackets outgained Georgia 168-34 and rallied for a 28-27 upset.
"I think that game was kind of indicative of our season - a little good here and a little bad there," Smart said afterward in a news conference. "We don't play with enough consistency yet. It's a 60-minute game, and we have to play all 60 minutes. You have to play each play like it's got a history and life of its own.
"We, as coaches, have to do a better job, and that starts with me."
An acrobatic 6-yard touchdown run by Tech's Qua Searcy with 30 seconds remaining put a roadblock on Georgia's promising November that began with a 27-24 win at Kentucky and continued with a 13-7 upset of No. 9 Auburn and a 35-21 win against Louisiana-Lafayette.
"We hoped that the defense would stop them, but they didn't," Bulldogs junior receiver Isaiah McKenzie said. "We all played a part in it. In the locker room, everyone was kind of down. Everybody wanted to win so the seniors could go out with a good win, but it didn't happen like that."
Said junior linebacker Davin Bellamy: "This game is going to be like this almost every year. Both teams are going to bring it. We're not taking anything away from those guys, because a lot of those plays in the fourth quarter and third quarter were just second-effort plays."
Georgia finished Smart's first regular season 7-5. The Bulldogs won his debut, roaring past North Carolina 33-24 at the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta, which resulted in a No. 9 ranking that was incredibly short-lived.
They needed late escapes against Nicholls State and Missouri and suffered heartbreaking defeats to Tennessee and Vanderbilt. Smart is the first Georgia coach to lose to Vandy and Tech - two foes Bulldogs fans expect to own - in the same season since Johnny Griffith in 1961.
"We will bounce back," Smart said. "We have an opportunity to play in a bowl game. We're going to get this team better."
Georgia likely will head to another Southeastern Conference "pool of six" bowl, with those being the Outback, TaxSlayer, Texas, Belk, Music City and Liberty. The Bulldogs are not expected to get taken by the Outback in Tampa, Fla., and they have played in the TaxSlayer in Jacksonville, Fla., two of the past three seasons.
The Texas Bowl took LSU last year and will probably take an SEC West team most seasons, so Georgia's most likely destinations appear to be the Belk (Charlotte, N.C.), Music City (Nashville) and Liberty (Memphis) bowls.
All 40 bowl matchups will be announced this Sunday. Until then, Smart and his staff will take to the road recruiting, where they will look to add to a class of commitments that is ranked No. 3 nationally by 247Sports.com and No. 4 by Rivals.com.
"Obviously the offensive line is a big area for us to try to improve, so we'll try to target that area," Smart said. "We'll try to have a good class that's not overloaded one way or another. We want to have a good-sized class, and we've got to get bigger at some positions.
"We hope to get bigger in the secondary to where we can be more physical in games like this."
Odds and ends
USA Today has reported that Mel Tucker, Alabama's secondary coach last year and Georgia's defensive coordinator this season, is a candidate for the head-coaching vacancy at Georgia State. The Bulldogs rank 16th nationally in total defense, allowing 328.0 yards per game, but rank 127th in red-zone defense, allowing foes to score 94.6 percent of the time. Georgia has scored 288 points this season and allowed 289.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.