ATLANTA — Georgia left no doubt about the direction of its football program with its dominant 28-7 SEC championship game win over Alabama on Saturday.

And Kirby Smart left no doubt about how the No. 3-ranked Bulldogs (12-1) planned to proceed on their ascension into the College Football Playoff after their win over the Tide (10-3).

“A couple of them just told me they want to go back and practice tonight, they said they want to get out there tonight and get on a Bloody Tuesday when we get back home,” Smart said in his postgame on-field interview, uncharacteristically caught up on the emotion of the moment.

“That’s the kind of mentality this team has — they want to practice some more, they want to practice some more, they love contact, and we love them.”

The College Football Playoff selection committee will have to determine how much they like Georgia in the rankings, which will come out at noon on Sunday (ESPN).

The Bulldogs will be the No. 2 or No. 3 seed and play in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 after defending their SEC championship in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Smart was clearly impressed.

“They’ve responded in the face of so much adversity, so much criticism, and they just kept getting better and better,” Smart said.

“We have to keep getting better. We had a lot of young players that stepped up. We had a lot of injuries, they had a lot of injuries, proud as hell of this team.”

ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit likened the 2025 SEC championship team defense to the national championship Georgia teams of yesteryear.

“Is Nakobe Dean out there? Is Jalen Carter out there? This looks like Georgia defense,” Herbstreit said.

“They are living up to the standard of the Kirby Smart era defense when it comes to winning the line of scrimmage, running to the football, playing with so much confidence. They had to grow up, and they have.”

Offensively, Gunner Stockton was a model of efficiency and won MVP honors completing 20-of-26 passes for 156 yards with three touchdown passes along with 13 carries for 39 yards.

“This is awesome, the journey this season has been awesome, being able to play with all the teammates, I love everybody,” Stockton said. “I’m glad we have another road ahead.”

The journey will likely start where last season’s ended with a 23-10 loss to Notre Dame in the CFP Sugar Bowl quarterfinal in New Orleans.

If Georgia is the No. 2 seed, it will play the winner of the first-round game pitting No. 10 seed (ESPN projects Alabama) against No. 7 seed (ESPN projects Texas A&M) in College Station, Texas, on Dec. 19 or Dec. 20.

If the Bulldogs are the No. 3 seed, it will play the winner of the first-round game between the No. 6 seed (ESPN projects Ole Miss) and the No. 11 seed (projected to be Tulane).