ATHENS — Georgia had talent on last year’s roster.

Four starting offensive linemen are currently on NFL rosters. The leading rusher and receiver were both taken in the fourth round of the NFL draft. It’s starting quarterback, Carson Beck, is now leading a different team in the College Football Playoff.

Yet the difference between last year’s group guided by Mike Bobo and this year’s feels night and day.

“It makes you tough, not just physically, but mentally, so you can handle those moments, and Coach Smart’s teams do not flinch in adversity, when they face adversity,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. “We know it’s gonna come in every game, whether the first game of the season, playing Marshall, or when we had Ole Miss, and we’re down in the fourth quarter, however many points it was. We don’t look at the scoreboard. We say put the ball down, and we gotta go out to make the next play.”

The simplest change comes with a renewed emphasis on running the ball. Georgia went from 15th in the SEC in rushing to third. Some of that is because of Gunner Stockton’s legs, adding an extra dimension that wasn’t present when Beck was at quarterback.

But there have been internal improvements as well. Running back Nate Frazier has already surpassed his statistical marks from last season. He needs just 139 rushing yards to become Georgia’s first 1,000-yard rusher since D’Andre Swift.

“I feel like week by week by week as this offense has played every single game, we have got a better connection,” Frazier said. “We have had more experience with each other, so it’s just like a flow. We know what we need to do to go throughout the game to try to win. So I feel like we’re more connected and know what needs to be done.”

Georgia’s passing offense, while less statistically productive, hasn’t been plagued by the same issues from last year. Drops have been nowhere near as big an issue, while Stockton has thrown just five interceptions compared to the 12 Beck threw a season ago.

Beck never had a chance to play with someone like Zachariah Branch. His work in the screen game, an extension of the run game, has helped keep the Georgia offense on schedule.

The USC transfer has been highly productive, needing just four receptions to set the single-season record at Georgia.

He’s greatly enjoyed getting to be at Bobo’s disposal.

“I think he’s done a great job with the whole playbook overall,” Branch said of the Georgia offensive coordinator. “He has a lot of great plays that he can draw up every single week and things like that, day in and day out. So we’re really just trying to execute the plan that they have for us every single play. He does a great job with the details. A lot of our guys do a great job taking initiative to be on our details and things like that because he can draw up the perfect play, but if we don’t do our job as well, we can’t make it happen.”

For as well as Bobo can draw things up, the players on the offense know it comes down to them. This offense has battled through a lot, particularly on the offensive line. Georgia had to start six different offensive line combinations in its first six games because of injury.

No one would mistake this offense as the most explosive or productive. The Bulldogs rank 31st in points per game and 64th in yards per play. Its best attribute comes in the red zone, where Georgia ranks second in red zone touchdown percentage. Georgia is also the top-ranked offense in the country in terms of fourth-down percentage, converting 76% of their opportunities.

This offense knows how to finish. Be it drives or games. A lot of it comes from trusting each other, both players and the play caller.

“He trusts his players and we trust him,” tight end Oscar Delp said. “And just when you’ve got an offense like we have and all the talented guys we have on that team, everyone kind of makes it all possible to call the plays he calls and have them executed the way they are.”

As Georgia enters the College Football Playoff, it knows it is close to finishing off this season in a special way. For all Bobo, a now three-time Broyles Award finalist, has done in his time at Georgia, he’s never been the play caller of a national championship-winning team.

Last year’s team saw its season end in New Orleans, in part because it failed to finish multiple scoring drives in Notre Dame territory.

There are different pieces this time around. The hope is that a shift in mindset leads to a better ending.

“The players do a great job executing it. So that part’s satisfying, that I work with a great group of guys and have unbelievable kids to coach,” Bobo said. “And we’ve had an outstanding season to this point, but we gotta finish. And that’s our mindset right now.”