Kirby Smart’s most recent group of Georgia seniors went out with a bang.

Two national championships. A school record-tying 17 consecutive wins. A school record 49-5 mark. Talent alone doesn’t get a team to those kinds of heights. The culture has to be right. The mentality has to be right.

And it certainly was.

Smart praised the Bulldogs’ latest senior class during a recent appearance on the ‘Basketball and Beyond with Coach K’ radio show on SiriusXM, saying they didn’t step onto the field on Saturdays worried about the score. Their intent was nastier.

“That senior group, they wouldn’t sacrifice what they believed in, how they’d practice, the work ethic in the offseason. It was a special group of leaders,” Smart told Krzyzewski. “They went into every game not thinking about the score, not thinking about winning, they wanted to make the other team quit.

“They played angry and mad. And I really loved the way they practiced. I mean, they would practice harder against each other sometimes than maybe they had to play in certain games. I loved it. I loved the practice element of that.”

Georgia won each of its first 3 games last season by 30-plus points. Only 2 teams all season were able to keep the final margin under 10 points. No one beat the Bulldogs, obviously, but only Missouri and Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinal even came close to threatening the Dawgs.

In the season prior, 13 of their 14 wins came by double-digits, including the national championship when they got revenge for their only loss of the year. They blanked 3 opponents and held 8 teams under 7 points.

Sounds like a mission accomplished.