NEW ORLEANS — Georgia football has obvious challenges ahead in the 2025 season amid a hyper-competitive SEC and a 12-team playoff that doesn’t reward playing a grueling schedule.
But former Bulldogs taking part in Super Bowl LIX for the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs have confidence Kirby Smart will continue to prevail.
“My message to DawgNation is rally around Kirby Smart, support him,” Philadelphia safety and 2022 first-round NFL pick Lewis Cine said at the Super Bowl media event on Monday. “Be there for him because he’s going to pull through for all of us.”
Smart has taken Georgia to seven of the past eight SEC Championship Games, winning three of them, including last season’s 22-19 overtime triumph over Texas.
But this upcoming team of Bulldogs could be void of having a first-round NFL pick in the 2026 draft for what would be the first time since 2017, and the quarterback position lacks the apparent star power of rivals Texas, Florida and Tennessee.
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That’s where Smart and his veteran coaching staff will have to make a difference — something that former CFP Championship Game Defensive MVP Kelee Ringo has no doubt the staff can do.
“Kirby Smart, one of the greatest coaches I’ve ever been around,” said Ringo, a defensive back on the Eagles who was a fourth-round pick. “He demands excellence, and he demands the standard no matter what it is.
“Having a guy like that, you can never lack in any situation or any adversity that you go through, just trust your preparation and just knowing your standard is demanded in anything you do.”
Smart’s ability to engage his players and get the most out of them has paved the way for former Bulldogs like Nolan Smith to have great success in the NFL.
Smith, an outside linebacker who has had a sack in each of Philadelphia’s playoff games, relishes a memory of Smart challenging him in a particular practice.
“I remember one of the memes that went viral, of him pointing and laughing and bumping me,” Smith said. “We went on (snap count) two, he got me on a hard count, because I’m a pass rusher.
“I want to say he did that for me, and he’d told me before practice. I’m like he ain’t going to get me. He said ‘I’m going to get you offsides today,’ so it was just hilarious.”
Smith and other Georgia players have all said how much they enjoyed and benefitted from Smart’s pregame speeches.
“Burn the boats, don’t leave nothing behind,” Smith said, recalling one of Smart’s messages, “and keep going.”
Jordan Davis, a former 3-star recruit who developed into an Outland Trophy winner at Georgia, said there’s nothing like that in the NFL.
“You can’t replicate that, he’s a ball of emotion,” said Davis, a starting defensive tackle for the Eagles and a former first-round pick. “It doesn’t matter, he’s going to say what’s on his mind. I do miss those pregame speeches.”
The success of the past Georgia has led to great expectations, to the extent there are some who actually have described the Bulldogs’ SEC championship season as a “down year.”
Cine isn’t buying that notion from the Georgia fans who see the glass half-empty after a 23-10 Sugar Bowl CFP quarterfinal loss to Notre Dame snapped the Bulldogs’ seven-game bowl win streak,
“Spoiled rotten, crazy — every team is going to have their bumps along the road, it’s part of the process,” Cine said. “Georgia has had bumps in the road before making it to the top, this isn’t any different.”
Indeed, Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Malik Herring has confidence in Georgia’s football future.
“I ain’t freaking out, we’re going to fix it,” said Herring, who signed with the Chiefs as a free agent. “There isn’t anything to worry about, we’re going to bounce back.”
DawgNation staffer Cody Chaffins conducted the interviews with the former Georgia football players in New Orleans on Monday