Former Bulldogs coach Jim Donnan’s last season at Georgia was in 2000, but the College Football Hall of Fame inductee is still plugged into the coming and goings of the Bulldogs football program.

That made his recent podcast appearance with FOX Sports’ Bruce Feldman an interesting listen.

You can hear the full 37:10 of the latest edition of “The Audible” here, but we’ve transcribed some of Donnan’s thoughts on some things going on with the Georgia program.

On Georgia’s decision to move away from Mark Richt, who replaced Donnan as head coach, after 15 seasons:

“You’ve got to look at the whole situation there. You’ve got to look at the last three years and the fact that the SEC East was down and Georgia wasn’t able to take advantage of that was really kind of the icing on the cake for Coach Richt. He did a tremendous job here and got very close several times, but there comes a time for every coach where its like: ‘Where are we going to go from here?’ And I think the fact that it was right there for them made them make the move on Kirby.”

On the expectations that will be placed on Kirby Smart, who played for Donnan at Georgia, as the new head coach:

“The expectations, obviously, are really high. There’s tremendous commitment to the program and there’s a pretty good football team coming back. Though not as good as maybe some of these fans think. Kirby’s got a good staff and he knows what to do in terms of competing in the league having been around Nick (Saban) for so long and having coached with Coach Bowden at Florida State and he kinda got his start with me, so I think he understands what’s ahead of him.”

On the current state of the SEC East: 

“I don’t think the East is very good next year, for sure. You know, I can’t think of any time since I’ve been around the last 20 years where the lesser teams are so bad, so I think Kirby’s got a good shot to come out there and have a great year.”

On whether he’d take the over or under on a 75 percent chance that incoming freshman QB Jacob Eason takes most of the snaps at quarterback in 2016:

“I’d say under, and mainly because I think there’s a lot to be expected and it’s going to be a big jump for him. I mean he’s certainly a talented guy. I’ve seen him live and I’ve seen him on tape, but he hasn’t played against very good competition and he’s going to need to develop his accuracy because he’s going to play against some really good defensive players where you’ve got to fit the ball into some windows.”

“You know, (Greyson) Lambert had a good year last year. Not as good as he needed to, but once (Nick) Chubb went down, the percentage of the passes went down because teams weren’t defending the run as much. But Lambert was 10-2 as a starter and I think it’s good for him to be back and we’ll see what happens. I would say under 75 percent as far as playing most of the season, but if he comes on strong and plays up to his ability and takes the job, I’d be happy to be wrong about that.”

On Nick Chubb:

“I remember last year I told you that Todd Gurley was the best Georgia player to be ready for the NFL since Champ Bailey, and he turned out to be like that. Chubb is a lot like Gurley, but now with this injury we’ll just have to see. I’ve seen him over there working out. He’s a premium kid and he’ll do as good as he can.”

“From everybody that I hear and talk to, everybody is optimistic. But there is also a little realism here because he did sustain a tough injury. And you know, they’re going to be really careful with him because there’s not a lot of depth behind him… I think overall it’s just a case of we have an outstanding training staff here and if there’s chance for him to be ready as early as possible, he’ll be ready. The kid has a tremendous work ethic.”