Kirby Smart on confidence, emotion of Georgia defense after SEC title game loss

Monday night’s National Championship serves as a chance at redemption for Georgia against Alabama. The Bulldogs entered the SEC Championship undefeated and the unquestioned No. 1 team, but the Crimson Tide came out on top. After an uncharacteristic performance by Georgia’s defense, Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart expects a big turnaround from his defense against Alabama.

Entering the SEC title game, Georgia’s defense hadn’t allowed more than 17 points in a single game. Alabama, though, came out firing, winning the game 41-24. But entering Monday’s game against the top-ranked Tide, Smart knows that there is a ton of talent on Georgia’s defense that is looking to build off of last week’s success against Michigan in the College Football Playoff semifinal.

“I really don’t think it would have mattered if it was the next game that we had to play Alabama (again),” Smart said of Georgia’s defense. “The defensive players we have, they have a lot of confidence. They’re okay looking in the mirror and saying, ‘Okay, what did I not do well. What did we do well and what do we have to improve on.’ There’s a lot of confident guys. They’ll be confident regardless of the outcome of this game because that’s the way they’re wired. They’re confident players. So I think it was good to go out and have some success.”

Georgia linebacker Nolan Smith was admittedly emotional after the loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship. Now, the Bulldogs get another stab at the Evil Empire.

“Yeah, Nolan (Smith) is a special player,” Smart added. “I mean he wasn’t the only guy who had tears in that locker room (after the SEC Championship). There were a lot of guys. But they also had earned the right to advance and get another opportunity and they capitalized on that.”

Nolan Smith on his emotion following Georgia’s loss to Alabama

Entering the SEC title game, Georgia looked seemingly unstoppable. The defense was putting up historic numbers, and Georgia looked poise to run away with an undefeated season. But Alabama had other ideas. As Smart alluded to, the loss caused some serious emotion on Georgia’s defense, but now the unit wants to use that as motivation against Alabama in Indianapolis.

“Want the honest to God truth? I cried,” Smith said when asked what his emotions were like after losing to Alabama. “I’m 20 now. I’ve been playing football since I was 4 — 16 years, and I haven’t won anything. Haven’t won a championship. I won a couple of bowl games but anything big, any championship I never won yet. And that’s one thing that keeps me going. That’s just something in the back of my head that I know that keeps me driving. I just want to win. I could care less how it gets done, how pretty it looks; I just want to win and play ball.”