College Blitz: Smart working to enhance Georgia's ability to meet expectations

Georgia second-year football coach Kirby Smart is well aware of the expectations surrounding the Bulldogs this season and every season.
Georgia second-year football coach Kirby Smart is well aware of the expectations surrounding the Bulldogs this season and every season.

The Georgia Bulldogs have made 20 consecutive bowl appearances, which is the longest active streak in Southeastern Conference football.

Georgia also has just two SEC championships since legendary tailback Herschel Walker left after the 1982 season, making this the league's most recognized program for being successful but not highly successful.

Second-year coach Kirby Smart does not need lessons on this subject.

"When we got here, I knew I had coached against the University of Georgia and that I had recruited against the University of Georgia," said Smart, who returned to his alma mater after winning four national championships in eight seasons as Alabama's defensive coordinator under Nick Saban. "I pretty much knew what was here, and I knew the expectation level that was here.

"I also knew the expectation didn't necessarily meet the quality of players that were here, and I think that's indicative of what the NFL thought of our roster last year."

Smart has added a pair of top-10 recruiting classes to Mark Richt's final crop in 2015 that has produced receiver Terry Godwin, cornerback Deandre Baker, defensive linemen Trenton Thompson and Jonathan Ledbetter and inside linebackers Natrez Patrick and Roquan Smith. Richt's 2014 class provided tailbacks Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, safety Dominick Sanders, outside linebacker Lorenzo Carter and offensive linemen Isaiah Wynn, Lamont Gaillard and Dyshon Sims, and the fact Georgia has 17 returning starters and incoming talent is the primary reason for a first-place projection in this year's Eastern Division race.

The Bulldogs haven't won the East since 2012, having watched Missouri and Florida each make two trips to Atlanta instead.

"The expectations and the standards Coach Smart brought just got higher and higher and bigger and bigger," Michel said. "We just have to live up to them. I'm excited about the challenges he brings to the team.

"It shows that he has faith in us that we can accomplish those goals."

Smart was a sophomore safety on Georgia's 10-2 team in 1997 that ended a seven-year losing streak to Florida, but the Bulldogs lost to the two teams - Tennessee and Auburn - who met in that season's SEC title game. The Gators and Volunteers dominated the East during Smart's time as a player, but he was the running backs coach for the Bulldogs in 2005, when they won their most recent league crown.

The Bulldogs were mediocre for most of last season, with a 24-10 loss to Florida saddling them with a 4-4 record entering November. Georgia closed with four wins in its final five games, snatching some momentum into the offseason with a 31-23 defeat of TCU in the liberty Bowl.

An elite signing class added to that momentum, and Smart believes much can be taken from his debut year.

"I liked our fight and resiliency," he said. "We had our backs against the wall with that rough spell we had in the middle of the year, and it was frustrating. Kids get frustrated, but they turned to the leaders and the coaches to see how to respond, and that's the one thing I was taught.

"They are going to look to you for a response, and if you respond and handle it the right way and don't let it affect you, then they won't, either. There was a lot of ball to be played, and you're always in it, especially in the SEC East, because you always have that game in Jacksonville lingering."

Smart was part of an Alabama program that went 7-6 in Saban's first year in 2007 and then reeled off 12 straight wins to open the 2008 season. He, like Saban, is not fond of making comparisons, but there is no question Smart has a higher comfort level having experienced last year.

"I kind of knew what all went into this having watched Nick go through it for nine years," Smart said. "You understand that there are obligations you have, and there is a reason they pay you seven digits. You have to deal with certain things and make tough decisions and hard calls.

"My favorite thing is the coaching aspect. When it gets down to the coaching, that's what I like."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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