Kirby Smart details what's next for Georgia, why the Bulldogs are already behind others

Less than 24 hours after Kirby Smart and Georgia won the national championship, the attention has somehow been turned to next season. In the modern age of college football, the minute your season wraps up, no matter the result, the year ahead becomes the top priority.

Smart was asked about his roster next season with a few presumably leaving for the 2022 NFL Draft. The head coach talked about roster turnover not only with players turning professional but also the transfer portal and the Bulldogs’ incoming recruiting class.

“It’s right now. We’ll have multiple kids. Probably we’ll have a few kids go into the portal that we’ve had discussions with that held that off, out of respect for the team. I thought that was tremendous. We’ll have that,” Smart said Tuesday morning. “Everybody will think that’s a terrible thing. But some cases it’s actually a good opportunity for kids. We’ve got 16 or 17 mid-years that have enrolled. We’ve got to finish off this class. We don’t know how many spots we have because we don’t know what some guys are doing, like Lewis and other guys. There’s a lot of work to be done.”

Smart went on to talk about how every other team in the country, besides Alabama, already has a leg up on Georgia going into next year. Most teams saw their season end by Jan. 1 with just a one-off bowl game. However, he credited Nick Saban, saying he learned how to deal with the turnover from him.

“And I know people don’t understand it, but other teams are 10 days up on you because they finished January 1st, your competitors. And you’re going, wait, they’re doing what? We’re trying to win a national championship,” Smart continued. “Fortunately, I had a really good mentor, teacher of dealing with that because he’s in it every year. But you fall behind because you’re trying to manage your roster. My biggest concern in terms of complacency is the guys coming back. We’ll lose some really good players on defense. We’ve got a lot of guys coming back on offense. But we’ll have to replace some good talented backs as well.”

Georgia will open the season on Sept. 3 in Atlanta against the Oregon Ducks and some familiar faces will be on the opposite side. Now former defensive coordinator Dan Lanning will be the head coach for Oregon, while former Auburn quarterback Bo Nix will be attempting to get his first-ever win over the Bulldogs. Kirby Smart has quite the job ahead of him if he wants to repeat as national champions.