Georgia continues to improve under head coach Kirby Smart, and that’s continued into this year, as the Bulldogs are the No. 3 ranked team in the country and poised to be one of the top contenders for the national championship.

During “The Paul Finebaum Show” on SEC Network on Tuesday, former Georgia quarterback and radio host Hutson Mason shared where he thinks this team ranks in the years since Smart took over prior to the 2016 season.

“I think they’re the best of the Kirby Smart era, I really do,” Mason said. “I know I’ve voiced my concerns about the receiver position and it’s not lack of potential, they’ve got potential, it’s really just lack of production right now. You look at the rest of this group on offense and defense, Kirby has finally, with due time, stacked three classes in a row on top of each other in the recruiting process.

“I know a lot of Georgia fans, including myself, feel like this is the year, like it is really, ‘Beat Bama or bust’ mentality, and that’s a compliment to Kirby.”

But in order to get to the next level, Mason knows what the Bulldogs have to do next — beat Alabama.

“The bottom line is Kirby, to me, has gotten Georgia to the pinnacle of college football success quicker than Nick [Saban] got Alabama there,” Mason said. “Now, the question is you’ve got to get past Alabama, and that’s kind of what everybody is judging this program and this team’s success on. So they expect this team to beat Notre Dame, they expect them to win the [SEC] East and, ultimately, the success is kind of hinging upon early in December when they play Alabama.”

Georgia will look to continue its impressive start when it hosts No. 7 Notre Dame on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.