Georgia football finishes the season ranked No. 3 in the Coaches Poll.

Yet in Kirby Smart’s final ballot, he had the Bulldogs at No. 5.

USA Today released the full ballots for the 63 coaches who voted in the Coaches Poll Top 25 this season. Smart had Michigan at No. 1, as all 63 coaches who voted in the poll did.

Smart put Washington at No. 2, Texas at No. 3 and Alabama at No. 4. Alabama beat Georgia 27-24 to hand the Bulldogs their only loss of the 2023 season.

Kirby Smart Coaches Poll Top 25 final ballot

  1. Michigan
  2. Washington
  3. Texas
  4. Alabama
  5. Georgia
  6. Florida State
  7. Oregon
  8. Missouri
  9. Ohio State
  10. Ole Miss
  11. LSU
  12. Penn State
  13. Arizona
  14. Oklahoma
  15. Notre Dame
  16. Oklahoma State
  17. Louisville
  18. Tennessee
  19. Liberty
  20. Iowa
  21. Oregon State
  22. SMU
  23. Kansas State
  24. NC State
  25. Clemson

The lowest Georgia was on any ballot was No. 5, with many coaches sliding Georgia in there. Three coaches had Georgia ranked as the No. 2 team in their final ballot, including Florida’s Billy Napier. Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman and Temple’s Stan Drayton also gave Georgia its highest ranking.

Georgia finished ranked ahead of Alabama in the official Coaches Poll, with the Crimson Tide coming in at No. 5. The highest Alabama finished in any poll was No. 3, while UCF head coach Gus Malzahn had Alabama finish at No. 8.

The Bulldogs ended the season with a 13-1 record, as the Bulldogs bounced back from their loss to Alabama with a commanding 63-3 win over Florida State.

With the big win, Georgia moved from No. 6 in the Coaches Poll, all the way to No. 3 in the final Coaches Poll. Georgia finished ranked No. 4 in the final AP Poll.

“I sort of think we get better as the year goes,” Smart said after the Orange Bowl. “There’s a culture at our place of work ethic and the job is not done. I think a lot of coaches relax at the end of the year and say this game doesn’t matter or this game is not important.

“There’s nothing that’s not going to be important at our place. There’s not going to be a day we walk out on that field that Kamari Lassiter is not walking through, that’s not important. I think that standard has translated into success, and I think that’s a big part of the culture that’s been created.”

Georgia opens the 2024 season against the Clemson Tigers, who finished the season ranked no. 20 in the Coaches Poll. Smart had Clemson ranked No. 25 on his ballot.