Kirby Smart pushes back on question asking what position Georgia needs to improve most

Georgia needs to improve everywhere ahead of this upcoming season. That’s the thinking in why Kirby Smart isn’t naming one specific position group that needs to be better for the Bulldogs.

Smart was asked that during his press conference while at SEC Media Days in Atlanta on Tuesday. He made it known that it wasn’t one that he liked as he doesn’t think of improvement positionally but more so as an entire roster down in Athens.

“Yeah, I don’t like the question. I’m sorry,” Smart said. “There’s not one position group that we don’t need to get better at. I mean, just me being frank with you, we’ve got to get better at each one. And, you can say that’s coach speak, but if I pick one, then I’m leaving somebody out.”

That may be coach speak, but that doesn’t mean that he’s wrong. As Smart said at the podium this week, Georgia has a roster that is comprised of underclassmen at a rate of 54%. Several notable contributors either graduated, got drafted, or transferred out. With that “youthful exuberance” comes an inexperience that Bulldogs will have to work out with their team coming into kickoff.

Most coaches would have just answered by singling out a spot or two on the roster that needed. Smart, though, kept it in general with all the Bulldogs needing to get better.

“We’ve got to improve all around,” Smart said.

Paul Finebaum declares Georgia the ‘biggest mystery’ in the SEC

Since Smart took over in Athens, the Bulldogs have been an example of excellence. Coming off another SEC Championship and appearances in the College Football Playoff, it’s now safe to say that there are high expectations again for them going into 2025.

Despite that, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum does have some questions that need to be answered ahead of next season. That, as he said on ‘McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning,’ has made the Bulldogs the biggest mystery in the entire SEC.

“I think they’re on that outside lane or maybe the inside lane over here,” Finebaum said. “Maybe you can move quickly or get slowed down. I don’t know. They are the biggest mystery.

“I know people that firmly believe they’re capable of winning the national championship. I’m not one. You have to be careful, and they’re in that spot that Alabama has been in over the years – ‘Well, they’re Alabama’. Well, okay. They can still miss the playoff and lose four or five games. I think Georgia right now, because the quarterback situation is a little bit uncertain and there’s some other pieces that are unknown, could end up being a two or three seed like last year, or maybe missing it altogether,” Finebaum said.

“I’m not trying to create a headline there. I think they’ll be in the playoff, but I don’t think they’ll be in by very much.”