The Georgia football program recently got off to a strong start to the 2025 college football season with a 45-7 home win over the Marshall Thundering Herd on Saturday. While not too much wisdom about the team can be taken away from a game like this, there were still positive overall vibes in Athens from head coach Kirby Smart and the team.
Although it's been two years since they've won a national championship, Georgia has found ways to stay in the contention discussion for the better part of the last decade despite consistently losing players to the NFL Draft.
Recently, Smart spoke on how he and his staff are able to accomplish this.
“I've never been into stats here,” Smart said, per Olivia Sayer of 247Sports. “We play more players when the game's in hand than probably anybody in the country. I think of those opportunities as development opportunities. It's why we've been really one of the better programs at turning players over in terms of what we put into the draft and lost early outs and having someone ready to go.”
He also spoke on why he isn't afraid to play inexperienced athletes in games like the Marshall contest.
“If it costs us a shutout, then that's a great lesson learned,” said Smart. “I'd much rather that kid cost me a shutout in that game than him cost me a touchdown a year later in an SEC game.”
Can Georgia football bounce back?
Last year, Georgia's season came to an unceremonious end with a loss against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Sugar Bowl. That was the second straight year in which the Bulldogs did not play in the national championship game after winning two straight trophies in 2021 and 2022.
This year, Georgia football has dropped a bit on the national radar but still has one of the most talented rosters in college football, full of young players who have gotten plenty of experience in the aforementioned blowouts that Smart referenced.
If Georgia can get some solid play out of quarterback Gunner Stockton, it's not off the table that they once again enter the championship mix this season.
