ATHENS — Georgia has heard all offseason about its recent College Football Playoff shortcomings. It will dog them through the regular season as well, until Georgia gets to the end of the season and wins a College Football Playoff game for the first time since the 2022 season.

Those past failures have forced Georgia coach Kirby Smart to change his approach. Those tweaks to the Georgia way are already on display with how the Bulldogs have practiced during the month of August.

Georgia has had shorter practices, in part because of a hotter-than-usual August. But the Bulldogs also want to make sure they have more in the tank come the end of the season.

“You gotta push guys, but you also gotta make sure you get guys to the race on Saturday,” Georgia director of strength and conditioning Scott Sinclair said. “So load management is a big word we use, and making sure that they can be ready to go and handle the load for a Saturday.”

Smart has been especially aware of how much work older players are getting in camp.

Some of that is because players like Drew Bobo and Gabe Harris entered fall camp with preexisting injuries. In addition to a foot injury, Bobo has suffered a finger injury on his non-snapping hand. But even healthy players, like tight end Lawson Luckie and running back Nate Frazier, have seen a reduction in reps.

The Bulldogs know what they have in those returning starters. And it needs them available at the end of the season.

“Injured or not, those guys would have been on a pitch count this fall,” Smart said. “Because I think a couple of them are fifth years, and a couple of them are fourth years. And fifth and fourth years for us, if they’re a returning starter like Gabe (Harris) is, and Drew (Bobo) is, and I really count Jordan (Hall) in that group, you don’t take every snap.

“There’s not enough snaps to go around, so we spread them out more, and those guys have been on pitch counts in terms of snap counts for practices.”

Harris and Bobo did not play in the College Football Playoff loss against Ole Miss, something Smart brought up at SEC Media Days. Smart rarely makes excuses for losses, so mentioning injured players is something still on the front of his mind.

“We’re a grind-you-out, hard-nosed, culture team,” Smart said at SEC Media Days. “We’re physical. We’re better when we’re playing in rhythm, when we have week after week after week and we have to rebound to play somebody. The breaks have probably affected us some. And then, you know, realistically, honestly, the injuries, you know, the Gabe (Harris)-Drew (Bobo) thing was just really, really tough. But I don’t look for excuses. Both those teams beat us in really tough ball games.

“Those games could have been week one, week five, or week 10 and the same thing could have happened. So it’s not like we’re looking for a complete overhaul. We’re just trying to do better.”

Perhaps no player’s health is more important to Georgia’s success than quarterback Gunner Stockton. The uncertainty with the backup quarterback spot has only heightened how valuable Stockton is to the Bulldogs. As Georgia has gotten more reps for Ryan Puglisi and Ryan Montgomery, Stockton has had a lighter workload this August.

Stockton dealt with an oblique injury during the middle of last season and has been prone to taking some monster hits from defenders.

Having gone through last season as the team’s starter, Stockton has the experience to know what shape his body needs to be in to make it through an SEC schedule.

“He did a really good job this summer of working on the main things but also some specific things that will help him as a quarterback,” Sinclair said. “We actually talked about a month ago of him getting an extra day in in-season this year to make sure he maintains what he’s built over the summer.

“And so I think he’s got a good plan. We’ve got a good plan for him this season coming up. And so it’s exciting to be able to watch what he’s gonna do.”

Injuries are going to happen in a violent game like football. Schools such as South Carolina, Texas and Tennessee have all seen key pieces suffer injuries during the preseason.

For the most part, Georgia has been able to avoid the injury bug to this point. It won’t be that lucky throughout the upcoming season.

The goal for this particular Georgia team is to work smarter, not necessarily harder, throughout this regular season.

This team knows it has to play well during the upcoming season to get back into the College Football Playoff. With games against Oklahoma, Ole Miss and Alabama — who all rank in the top 15 of the preseason AP Poll — Georgia won’t be able to coast into the College Football Playoff.

At the same time, it knows it needs to have another gear it can reach late in the year to truly be at its best.

“Trying to just be smart with the way we’re training them, because you wanna be able to get to December, January, and you wanna be explosive and powerful and fast there, just as much or more than you want to in August and September,” Sinclair said.