ATLANTA — The Georgia Bulldogs are hurting. Kirby Smart doesn’t mind a bit.
From his perspective, last week’s crushing loss to Alabama will go a long way toward determining if this team has what it takes to make another championship run.
So far, the 10th-year head coach likes what he sees.
“The more invested you are, the more you hurt,” said Smart, who returned to his alma mater after nine seasons on Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama but is just 1-7 against the Crimson Tide as Georgia’s coach — 1-5 against his former boss before he retired and now 0-2 against second-year leader Kalen DeBoer.
Alabama and Georgia were both coming off an open date heading into last week’s meeting at Sanford Stadium, where the Tide’s 24-21 triumph ended a 33-game streak of home wins for the Bulldogs that was the longest active run in the Football Bowl Subdivision. It was the Southeastern Conference opener for Alabama but the second league contest for the Bulldogs, who two weeks earlier found their way to a 44-41 overtime victory at Tennessee.
“I know more about my team right now than I did a week ago,” Smart said. “I can guarantee you that. That’s what fires me up. And I got a lot of optimism after that game, because I learned a hell of a lot more about my team than I had the previous week.”
The No. 12 Bulldogs (3-1, 1-1), who are out of the top 10 in the AP Top 25 for just the second poll since 2021, will be looking to bounce back when they host Kentucky (2-2, 0-2) on Saturday.
“If I could play right now, I would,” defensive lineman Jordan Hall said early in the week. “I’m just optimistic about what’s in front of us. We’ve got a long season waiting for us. We can’t be mad about the past. We’ve just got to use that as fuel.”
While discouraging — and if Smart is reading the room correctly, motivating — the first loss of the season was hardly a death blow to Georgia’s hopes in the national championship race. A year ago, the Bulldogs lost a pair of SEC games (to Alabama in late September and Ole Miss in early November) but still managed to win the conference title and a spot in the first 12-team edition of the College Football Playoff.
It was their fourth playoff appearance under Smart, including back-to-back national titles for the 2022-23 seasons, when it was a still a four-team event.
That said, they certainly can’t afford a slip-up against one of the SEC’s lesser teams, especially with games against No. 4 Ole Miss and No. 9 Texas among those still lurking on their league schedule, as well as No. 17 Georgia Tech, which is undefeated and tied atop the Atlantic Coast Conference standings.
“Different year, different season. I think what’s applicable is that college football teams are going to have this parity,” Smart said. “What’s going to separate teams is how they either fracture or don’t fracture, or how their infrastructure’s built to sustain losses. We’re built for this. We have infrastructure, we have plans, we know the pathway, so I’m excited to see where this team goes.”
The Bulldogs have plenty of things to work on, starting with their propensity for sluggish starts.
They fell behind Tennessee 21-7 in the first quarter before rallying in an extra period made possible when the Volunteers missed a 43-yard field-goal attempt at the end of the fourth quarter. Against the Tide, Georgia faced a 24-14 deficit at halftime. Even when taking on overmatched Austin Peay of the lower-tier Football Championship Subdivision, the Bulldogs were up just 14-3 at halftime.
“We’ve got to do better at it. I don’t really know why it’s happening,” Hall said. “We’re going through practice trying to come out with a little bit more energy.”
Smart likes what he sees in the trenches, though. Georgia rushed for 227 yards against Alabama, and the Bulldogs limited the Tide to 117 yards on the ground.
Chauncey Bowens has become the leader in the backfield, ripping through Alabama for 119 yards and a touchdown on just 12 carries, averaging a whopping 9.9 yards each time he got the ball. His emergence has been especially important as Nate Frazier deals again with fumble trouble.
“We can run the ball, and we can stop the run,” Smart said. “The two things that we struggled with last year, so we have to continue to improve in those areas.”
Georgia has dominated the series with Kentucky, holding a commanding 64-12-2 lead with a 15-game winning streak. The Wildcats have won a series matchup since 2009.
Still, the lopsided numbers tell only part of the story. Kentucky has been a troublesome opponent at times for the Bulldogs, who struggled to a 13-12 victory a year ago in Lexington.
Smart expects his team to be fired up Saturday.
“There’s a lot of college football teams right now that have teams that the kids don’t care,” he said. “When people hurt, you usually get a better response.”