Kirby Smart and Georgia will change gears in a big way this week as the Bulldogs go from hosting the No. 1 team in the land in Tennessee, to going on the road to Mississippi State in what could be a season-making game for the cowbell Bulldogs.

That was the setup for ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt when he brought Smart on for a visit Thursday night.

Smart said Georgia prepared for State and other future opponents during the bye week 3 weeks ago, but there’s no offensive overlap to prepare for the Air Raid.

“I liken it to playing a triple option team in the middle of the season,” he said. “You have to change your defense. You have to change your calls completely. So it’s like starting over, we call it Etch A Sketch. Just erase it and you start all over with the players.”

Smart was then asked about maintaining an edge from before the national championship, and Smart referred to “great DNA traits” by the players.

“We talk about it each week, we’ve got some good leaders,” he said. “I was worried about the team meeting coming in Monday, them patting themselves on the back, and being all high and mighty about the Tennessee game, we were going to have a memorial service to kind of bury that game and put it away, a bunch of players came to me and were like ‘Coach, you don’t need to do that, we’re over it. Let’s go.’ And we always say Monday’s about going to see the doctor. To see what you can get better at, to see what you can cure.”

About the national title, Smart said it’s reinvigorated the staff and taken on the challenge to make the players believe as they turn to new leaders on the team.