Kirby Smart on UGA’s early playoff exits: ‘We’ve got to play better when it matters’

The SEC takes pride in being the best conference in college football.

But there have been three different national champions in the last three years — all coming from the Big Ten. So what’s it going to take for the SEC to end that drought?

That’s one of the questions that Channel 2’s Alison Mastrangelo asked when she caught up with Georgia head coach Kirby Smart at the SEC Media Days on Tuesday.

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Smart’s Bulldogs were the last SEC program to win a national title when Georgia went back-to-back in 2021 and 2022. Since then, the Bulldogs haven’t been able to advance out of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.

“We’ve got to play better when it matters. I think the two teams we played had something to do with that,” Smart told Mastrangelo about the recent playoff losses to Ole Miss and Notre Dame.

“You know both those two teams were top two, four teams in the country, and we did not play like it on that night. So I focus more on like any one of the games in the season could have been just like that. The outcome just came later in the year, so we have to find ways to improve later in year," Smart said.

Every year, Smart picks a successful business, brand or team to show his players the hard work it takes to be great. This year, Smart chose to break down the success of the Oklahoma City Thunder. And it’s fitting.

The Thunder were the second youngest team to win the NBA Championship in 2025. Georgia has the youngest roster in college football with the average age of 19.81.

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