How Georgia embraces being the new Alabama of the SEC? Back-to-back National Champs battle 'complacency' as they embark on college football history
The Georgia Bulldogs are back-to-back national champions and are embracing being the new Alabama of the Southeastern Conference.
The Bulldogs head coach is Kirby Smart, who spent nine seasons as an assistant on Nick Saban's staff. During that time, Smart saw the Crimson Tide win back-to-back titles and be the most dominant college football program.
Since leaving Alabama, Smart has turned Georgia into a powerhouse, and after finally beating the Crimson Tide, the Bulldogs went on to win the 2022 and 2023 titles.
Now, ahead of the 2024 season, Kirby Smart and Georgia are embracing the challenge of trying to three-peat and being the new dominant program in college football.
"Everybody here has talked about the emphasis on [the] three-peat, the emphasis on what are you going to do next, how are you going to top that, how do you top an undefeated season," Smart said on Day 2 of the 2023 SEC Media Days.
"The threat for us is complacency. The first thing you have to do is acknowledge that it's a threat. If you acknowledge that complacency is a threat, it's the first step towards stomping it out. We want sustained success. So we have to do that by winning every day. That's not going to change whether we win it or not this year," he added.
Georgia Bulldogs looking for a three-peat
For many teams, once they win, they get complacent, and winning again is more difficult. However, that hasn't been the case for the Bulldogs, who went undefeated last season and stomped TCU in the championship game.
Although the core group of the Bulldogs team has already won twice, the program knows they aren't finished and are ready to continue their dominance this fall.
"The mentality for this year is really just better, never rest," defensive back Kamari Lassiter said at the SEC Media Days.
"We are trying to eat off the floor. We are not trying to be complacent this year. We are trying to uphold our standard and keeping the main thing the main thing," Lassiter added.
The Georgia Bulldogs kick off the 2023 college football season at home against UT Martin on Sep. 2.