ATLANTA - The Georgia Bulldogs entered last football season as the reigning Liberty Bowl champions.
They are now the defending Southeastern Conference champs, which obviously is accompanied by a much larger target.
"We know that everyone is going to circle us on their schedule, but that doesn't change our mentality," Bulldogs junior safety J.R. Reed said Tuesday as SEC Media Days continued at the College Football Hall of Fame. "We're still going to be the hunters. We're not going to be the hunted. We're still going to attack.
"We know that everyone is going to be gunning for us, but we've got to change the way they think and keep the same mentality."
After a 2016 season that contained home losses to Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech, the Bulldogs erupted in Kirby Smart's second year, racing out to a 9-0 record and a No. 1 ranking in the College Football Playoff standings. Their undefeated season was derailed by a 40-17 loss at Auburn, but they regrouped to demolish Kentucky and Georgia Tech before getting a second crack at Auburn in the SEC title game and pulling away for a 28-7 victory.
Georgia received its first invitation to the national four-team playoff and pulled out a riveting 54-48 double-overtime win over Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl, but its bid for the program's first national title since 1980 ended with a 26-23 overtime loss to Alabama in the title game. The Bulldogs held a 20-7 advantage over the Crimson Tide midway through the third quarter but couldn't finish them off, and there was no shortage of inquiries Tuesday about that outcome.
"Everybody wants to ask that question," Smart said. "It's not like I have nightmares about it. I think that we grow from it. That entire season was a learning experience. It was a confidence-builder for a lot of players on our team.
"We got to play in some incredible atmospheres in those last five or so games."
Georgia quickly has shifted from a program in building mode to a program in maintaining mode, joining the elite likes of Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson. The Bulldogs return eight offensive starters but only four defensive starters, with linebackers Roquan Smith, Lorenzo Carter and Davin Bellamy leaving the most notable void.
Smart believes one of the biggest challenges for this year's team is avoiding comparisons to last season's squad, and he welcomes the pressure.
"You should feel privileged to have pressure to win games and to have expectations," Smart said. "Everybody is talking about the expectations, but last year at this time they were talking about the same expectations. I went back and reviewed my notes for this event, and it was the same thing. Georgia is expected to do this - to win the East and to win championships.
"Those are things we embrace at the University of Georgia. We can't run from those things."
Georgia's fruitful 2017 season was launched by a 20-19 win at Notre Dame in the second game. There is no daunting nonconference foe out of the gate this year, but the second game at South Carolina could be this season's biggest contest involving Eastern Division teams.
The Bulldogs already have been listed as favorites in all 12 of their regular-season games, as has Alabama on the Western side. A rematch of last season's national title game in this year's SEC championship contest is expected, but a lot must transpire between now and then.
"We're going to go after everybody else just like we're the underdog," Bulldogs senior receiver Terry Godwin said. "No matter what anybody says, we're going to go out there hungry."
Said Reed: "We know how we did it last year, and we want to do it even better, because we didn't get the finished result."
Robertson update
Georgia recently added receiver Demetris Robertson, a former five-star talent who signed with California in 2016 and caught 57 passes in two seasons with the Bears. Robertson played in only two games last season and received a medical redshirt, and he has requested the opportunity to play this season and not have to sit out due to NCAA transfer rules.
"That's out of my department, and it will be in the NCAA's hands," Smart said. "I'm excited about Demetris. He's a really great, competitive kid who I've known about since his ninth-grade year."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.