ATHENS — Kirby Smart doesn’t spend time patting himself on the back, but his team’s growth this season illustrated part of what separates him among head coaches.

Smart recognized before last spring what Georgia needed to grow into a title contender, and he recently revealed the Bulldogs were working in key areas before the pads went on last March.

When talking to the team during prep for the upcoming CFP Sugar Bowl quarterfinal on Jan. 1, against the winner of Saturday’s Tulane-Ole Miss game, Smart asked his players how this year’s team was different than last year’s.

“It was there’s been a better energy in practices this year, there’s been a little more buy in, the leadership has held people more accountable,” Smart said of the team discussion during at interview on the See Ball, Get Ball podcast.

“We’ve run the ball and stopped the run better, and I said, ‘why have we done that?’ And they said ‘We made it a point of emphasis, Coach, ya’ll said we had to do this, we had to be able to run the ball and we had to be able to stop the run. “

To Smart’s point, Georgia has improved its rushing yardage per game from 124.4 yards per game last season (102nd in the nation) to 186.6 yards per game this season (34th in the country).

This, despite losing four starters from last season’s team to the NFL ranks.

Defensively, Georgia is allowing just 79.2 yards per game rushing this season (fourth in the nation), compared to 129.6 yards per game last season (36th in the nation).

Again, UGA had key players to replace, with five players of last year’s front seven now in the NFL or transferred to other schools.

“We made a committed effort in the offseason to say, instead of doing one-on-one pass (protection) every day at our light practices — the non padded drills — we’re going to do run drills, we’re going to block fronts, we’re going to block stunts and movements, we’re going to really work on stopping the run and running the ball,” Smart said.

“Even if we’re not in pads, and then when we put pads on in the spring, we’re going to do a little more run emphasis, we’re going to do less RPOs when we run, we’re going to commit to saying there’s people in the box and you’ve got to block them, and you can’t just find ways around it.”

Smart said the team’s mindset, along with the results, changed as a result of the approach.

“I think you get what you demand in this world, and you get what you demand in this game, and we probably demanded it more,” Smart said.

“It’s not that the last group was not capable, we probably didn’t demand it at that standard.”

Georgia football 2025 rushing leaders

Nate Frazier, 158 carries, 861 yards, 6 TDs

Chauncey Bowens, 98 carries, 516 yards, 6 TDs

Gunner Stockton, 116 carries, 442 yards, 8 TDs

Dwight Phillips Jr., 35 carries, 210 yards, 1 TD

Josh McCray, 51 carries, 138 yards, 3 TDs

Dillon Bell, 17 carries, 109 yards, 2 TDs

Bo Walker, 22 carries, 100 yards, 3 TDs

Rod Robinson 6 carries, 22 yards, 0 TD