ATLANTA — Even at SEC Media Days, Georgia coach Kirby Smart can’t escape the game that ended his team’s championship hopes in 2017.
“I got to watch it early with the ‘Get Up!’ With Mike Greenberg,” Smart told reporters on Tuesday. “I thought they might open with the SEC championship, but of course not.”
The sting from that loss, of course, is compounded by the way it ended: a 41-yard touchdown connection in overtime between Tua Tagovailoa and Devonta Smith. “Second-and-26,” they call it.
MORE: Fromm, Fields gives Georgia 'fantastic problem'
Not that Smart is actively avoiding the play. In fact, judging from his reactions on Tuesday, you might guess it never crosses his mind. But do Georgia players, at least, use that loss as a motivator for success?
Nope.
“We can’t dwell on the past,” said Terry Godwin, Georgia’s leading returning receiver in 2018. “You’ve got to focus on the future, and that’s what we’re doing.”
No, you won’t hear anyone from Georgia talk at length about Alabama, about 2017, or about external motivators. But that doesn’t mean they forgot the lessons taken from that run to the College Football Playoff.
That experience, Kirby said, will be invaluable as the Bulldogs attempt to return to the Playoff.
“Those Playoff games, that extra practice, and that time preparing, those media sessions and walkthroughs, all of those extra games help develop your young players,” Smart said. “We hope that valuable experience pays off for the team coming back this year.”
So it goes for Georgia. On to the next play, the next recruit, the next game.
MORE: SN's 2018 SEC predictions
So far, that philosophy seems to have worked. Smart leveraged the success of Georgia’s 2017 season to bring in one of college football’s best classes of all time. His Bulldogs are a favorite to win the SEC East and will have another shot at returning to the Playoff.
Georgia saw an exodus of talent, but returns playmakers like Godwin, defensive lineman Jonathan Ledbetter, running back D’Andre Swift, quarterback Jake Fromm and more.
The challenge for those players in 2018, Smart said, is to “finish it when we get there.” It’s a message the players seem to have taken to heart.
“You kind of see what it takes to get there,” Ledbetter said. "Then you see that you didn’t get it. And you know you have to put in that much work to get it all together. … We had a great season, but what else does it take?”
Said safety J.R. Reed: “What matters is what we can control in our locker room. We’re happy that we got that far, but we want to win the national championship. That loss to Alabama doesn’t motivate us. We’re going to keep pushing ourselves.”
