ATHENS — Even for a team as talented as Georgia, the Bulldogs were placing a pretty heavy load on their youngest group of players this season.

That’s no surprise to Kirby Smart. He expects it to be the norm moving forward.

Probably about the level we expect," Smart said following Georgia’s 28-7 win over Alabama. “I mean, we wanted to speed it up early because we got some talented young guys coming along.”

Many of those freshmen shone on Saturday. Safety Rasean Dinkins made his first career start. Elijah Griffin, Dontrell Glover and Juan Gaston all earned valuable snaps on the line of scrimmage.

Zayden Walker came away with a sack in the win, while CJ Wiley was thrust into a bigger role due to a Noah Thomas injury. Wide receiver Talyn Taylor returned from injury as well, though he did not have a reception in the 28-7 win.

None of these players were with the team last year when it went down to New Orleans to play in the Sugar Bowl.

Whether the Bulldogs face Ole Miss or Tulane this time around, the expectation is they’ll play critically important roles.

“We do have a lot of players getting better. We’ve challenged our guys to do that, but the problem now is continuing to do that, and that long layoff can get you.”

Georgia will get this week off to recover from a 13-game slate that saw the Bulldogs play 10 games against Power 4 opponents.

When Georgia returns to the practice field, it’ll give players like Taylor and Wiley the chance to improve. That’s something Notre Dame opted out of when it passed on playing in a bowl game, though the situations between the two programs aren’t analogous at this point in time.

That a team this young is already playing so well should create even further confidence for the future of the Georgia football program.

Especially with another talented crop of recruits on the way. Georgia the No. 5-ranked recruiting class according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. Of the 29-man class, 22 of those prospects are blue-chip recruits.

Many of those recruits, such as Justice Fitzpatrick and Ekene Ogboko, will get the chance to go through bowl practices, just as Walker, Griffin and Wiley did a season ago.

“The number of true freshmen that are in the two deep is probably higher than it’s ever been in my 10 years here,” Smart said. “And I got a feeling that’s here to stay. So that’s saying that those guys we signed yesterday would be factors in our depth chart next year, and they’ve got to be ready to play faster because you just don’t have as many people.”

Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Georgia is peaking at this point in time. While Dinkins and Glover are still listed as freshmen, they’re drastically improved players from the ones who played against Marshall back in August.

That group leveling up is a big reason why Georgia has positioned itself like it has to be a real threat to win the College Football Playoff.

“We have freshmen that I now think of as sophomores. They came in the spring,” Smart said. “They’ve literally been here a full year, but it feels like they’re sophomores.”