Kirby Smart celebrated Georgia’s dominant win over LSU on Saturday in the SEC Championship Game with a post-game smile and credit to his players, the fan base and university.

“So proud of this group,” Smart told Jenny Dell of CBS Sports. “All they wanted to do, they kept talking about doing something last year’s group didn’t do. They had really good physical practices this week. So proud of the way they prepared for this game. So proud of this university, this fan base. To get an opportunity to come in this place, and play in this game is just a great honor.”

Smart then spoke about Stetson Bennett, as the quarterback continued to impress.

“A thrill-a-minute, man,” Smart said. “The guy is really good, he’s really athletic, he plays within our system and he makes everybody better around him. Nobody watches more tape and prepares more than he does.”

At the championship podium, Smart said the victory is very satisfying for all the fans, “who stuck around the whole game, came to Atlanta, took over Atlanta. We started the season in Atlanta, we finished the regular season in Atlanta and SEC champs, it just means more.”

Dell asked Smart about the questions about the program after last season’s national championship and the talent lost to the NFL.

“Here’s the program with that, the people within this program, the ones on this stage, there were never any questions,” he said. “These guys knew they had talent, they knew we had players coming back. They knew from playing Oregon all the way to playing LSU, they knew. They were just ready to go out and put it on a showcase and I thought they did a great job of doing that tonight. Played a really good LSU team, lot of credit to Brian Kelly. But proud of the way these guys practiced this week, and played in here tonight.”