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Kirby Smart glad that his players are hurting after loss to Alabama, fired up about future

On3 imageby: Jake Rowe2 hours agoJakeMRowe
Kirby Smart Georgia
Georgia Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart on the sideline during the first half of a NCAA college football game against Alabama in Athens, Ga., on Saturday, September 27, 2025.

Kirby Smart says that his players are hurting after Georgia’s 24-21 loss to Alabama on Saturday. He also says that he likes to see the players take it that way.

It ultimately goes to show him and others in the program how invested the players are into doing things the right way and getting the desired result. The 10th-year head coach believes that Kentucky is already the primary focus for his team, that getting ready for the former SEC Eastern division foe will help them get past the pain.

But what Smart learned during the four quarters on Saturday reaches beyond emotion. After spending the past nine months with this team, he now knows more about it in general—enough to make him excited about its future.

“I know more about my team right now than I did a week ago. I can guarantee you that,” Smart said on Monday. “That’s what fires me up. And I got a lot of optimism after that game, because I learned a hell of a lot more about my team than I had the previous week.”

Georgia had it’s chances to win the game. It dropped a wide-open touchdown pass in the third quarter that would have given it the lead. The Bulldogs squandered a scoring opportunity the next time they got the ball, failing on 4th and 1 when they were in chip-shot field goal range for the tie.

Smart fielded multiple questions about that 4th-down scenario on Monday. He also had to talk about why his defense got off to another slow start and Alabama’s ability to move the chains on third down so effectively. It seemed as if each question made him want to steer the conversation back to his team’s preparation for Kentucky.

It’s a pretty consistent message for Smart after a loss. The next game is the most important game, and Georgia is aiming to go undefeated in eight more one-game campaigns before the 2025 regular season is over.

“I’m glad that they were affected and hurt,” Smart said. “There’s a lot of college football teams right now that have teams that the kids don’t care. Like, when people hurt, you usually get a better response, right? You get a better mechanism of buy-in, or doubling down on something, of knowing who I am, and knowing what I have to work on. So that part excites me to get to work today.” 

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