Kirby Smart has built a juggernaut.
The Georgia Bulldogs have won two national championships since he became the head coach in 2016, and they’re among the favorites to win it all in 2026. That’s just the standard in Athens now.
With that said, the Bulldogs missed the College Football Playoff in 2023 after going 13-1, and they’ve lost in the quarterfinal in each of the last two seasons.
That championship standard comes with some high expectations, and Smart and UGA have not lived up to those expectations for three seasons in a row.
Could he be feeling the pressure based on the monumental standard that he’s set?
Interestingly, in a recent conversation with Paul Finebaum, Smart did admit that there’s pressure at Georgia. He also admitted that there’s some disappointment for how things have gone over the past few seasons. Though he did suggest that those feelings are more for the fans and less for the people in the room doing all the hard work season-to-season.
There’s also no shortage of enthusiasm for the Bulldogs.
“Oh I’m great. I think our fans are as excited as they can be,” Smart told Finebaum on Wednesday (h/t On3). “I don’t look at it as disappointment. When you lose games, yeah. Disappointment when you bow out of the playoffs first round, yeah. But when you look at the totality of the season and the totality of what we’ve done, the body of work, I don’t let my happiness be drawn on the cusp of all these people.”
Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs don’t let the pressure get to them
Smart realizes that there’s only one team that can hoist the national championship trophy each season. That doesn’t mean that the trophy isn’t the ultimate goal and the ultimate standard, but not hitting it doesn’t negate the accomplishments and goals that he and his players have met.
Keep in mind, they’ve gone 36-6 over the past three seasons.
There’s a lot to be happy about in Athens, and like most good coaches, Smart also realizes that there’s only so much he can control. His former mentor, Nick Saban, would say that you can’t control the results — only the process.
“I’m here to play golf today,” Smart told Finebaum. “Tomorrow I’m watching my son play in a state tennis tournament. And I’m going to worry about what I do the next day the next day. I don’t let the pressure get to me. Been doing it too long.”
