ATHENS — The College Football Playoff moves on without Georgia tonight, putting an exclamation point on the finality of the season.

It was a good season that exceeded expectations.

The Bulldogs, picked to finish second in the SEC behind Texas and ranked No. 5 in the preseason AP Top 25, entered the playoffs ranked No. 3 and as SEC champions.

Kirby Smart, one of only two active coaches with two national titles and one of only four to win back-to-back SEC championship games, left Caesar’s Superdome with his head held high last Thursday.

Georgia left it all out on the field, even as the Bulldogs had to dig deep into their depth chart with key players missing before and during the 39-34 loss to Ole Miss.

The Rebels, who play Miami at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in the CFP Fiesta Bowl semifinal were simply the better team. Ole Miss out-gained UGA in every quarter. Most notably, the Rebels produced more spectacular play at the all-important quarterback position.

Trinidad Chambliss, who led Division ll Ferris State to a national championship in 2024 before transferring to Ole Miss, was remarkably accurate in passing for 362 yards and especially elusive avoiding sacks on his 46 drop-backs.

Gunner Stockton was as gritty and poised as ever, but Georgia simply didn’t have enough around him on offense or defense, and Stockton was not enough of a playmaker to compensate.

Here are 3 takeaways from the Bulldogs season:

1. That was then, this is now

The back-to-back Georgia title teams of 2021 and 2022 historically loaded with talent, with a who’s who of today’s Fantasy Football stars on offense alone: James Cook, Brock Bowers, George Pickens and Ladd McConkey, to name a few.

Those defenses — five first-round defensive linemen on the 2021 team — were elite, too, giving UGA’s offense the luxury of not having to press.

Fast forward to 2025, where Stockton was forced to lead Georgia from behind in six of its seven SEC victories in his first year as the starting quarterback.

How many of the current Bulldogs on offense or defense would have started for the 2021 or 2022 UGA football teams? Zachariah Branch is the only name that immediately comes to mind.

Of course, the NIL has brought a great deal more parity to college football, and that makes the second takeaway all the more important.

SEC took its toll

Georgia went 4-2 against teams that finished in the CFP Top 25, and understandably, was dealt its share of bumps and bruises in such games along the way.

It was one thing for Georgia to overcome the loss of its best offensive lineman, center Drew Bobo, and beat a College Football Playoff team in Alabama to win the SEC championship and earn a bye.

But then UGA’s best pass rusher, Gabe Harris, was injured and unavailable for the Sugar Bowl.

And then Georgia had to dig deeper into the depth chart when starting linebacker Raylen Wilson left the Sugar Bowl with injury, and the starting safety JaCorey Thomas was ejected, and then starting tailback Nate Frazier left the game with injury.

It’s not a stretch to say any one of those players could have made the difference between winning and losing against Ole Miss.

Injuries are part of the game, but that makes them no less a determining factor, and it was a tribute to Smart and his team that Georgia was able to overcome its losses throughout the season to be in position for a potential playoff run.

“We certainly grew in a lot of areas; we lost some players in some areas and had to replace them,” Smart said. “I don’t know that there was ever a point where I said ‘okay, this is a playoff team (because) it was a team that was in the playoffs during the year - every game, every road game and every home game we play in our conference, is one game away from being out of it.”

A helluva year

Georgia won the SEC and went as far as it did with maximum efficiency attained through elite coaching and rapid development of many new and young players.

The Bulldogs ranked among the nation’s best in Red Zone touchdown and scoring proficiency and was second in fourth down conversion rate (75 percent).

As noted, UGA came from behind in six of its seven SEC victories, in some cases needing miraculous or inspired plays.

The fourth-down TD pass to London Humphreys at Tennessee, the goal-line stop and forced fumble to rally for 10-0 down at Auburn, the fourth-and-1 conversion run by Josh McCray to come from nine down in the fourth quarter against Ole Miss and the fourth-and-1, fourth-quarter stop to shift momentum in the 24-20 win over Florida.

The Sugar Bowl required the same sort of play for Georgia to win — and the Bulldogs very nearly got it, as Daylen Everette nearly intercepted Chambliss on the Rebels’ game-winning drive.

“It was a back-and-forth game … “ Smart said in his postgame. “That was basically every conference game we had this year. I felt like every game was like that one: back, forth, back, forth. Plays being made all over.”

Ole Miss made more, and Georgia exited the season as SEC champions with a 12-2 record, exceeding preseason expectations and setting a foundation for another playoff run in 2026.

At the time of this writing, Georgia will return seven starters on offense and seven starters on defense, along with keeping its primary coaches in place.

Many if not most Bulldogs fans might still have a hard time letting go of what might have been this season, but Smart, with his coaching wisdom, had put this run into perspective before the Sugar Bowl kicked off.

“My goal every year, and I learned this a long time ago (from) Coach (Bobby) Bowden, and Coach (Nick) Saban and even my dad (Sonny Smart), is, did you get the most out of that team?” Smart said in New Orleans.

“Did that team get the most out of the potential? There’s some coaches that get the most out of their team and they don’t win a national championship. That’s a helluva year.”

Indeed, from this vantage point, Kirby Smart and his Georgia Bulldogs had a helluva year.