Kirby Smart has things clicking in Athens after back-to-back national titles. That run of dominance includes a 29-1 overall record and a 16-0 record in the regular season of SEC play.

In a recent sitdown interview with Marty and McGee for the SEC Network, Smart was asked about the team culture entering 2023. The question was particularly related to Georgia’s strong QB room and the ability to keep a number of top recruits in the program during this era of the transfer portal.

“It says we’re doing something right. People want to question culture and people want to question what’s going on, I’ve never felt better about our culture than I do right now within our team,” claimed Smart.

To illustrate his point, Smart referenced the “COVID class” of signees to Georgia. The vast majority of that group remains in Georgia’s program while the Bulldogs also carry most of last year’s coaching staff into 2023.

“I was just talking to somebody and the COVID class, this class that everybody’s talking about — somebody should do a study on that class by the way, because they didn’t go on any visits. They didn’t do anything. Well, they’re all rising juniors… 17 of the 20 guys we signed out of high school (in that class) are all in our program,” said Smart. “Find me somebody that can say that…

“We’re retaining our players, they enjoy being there, they love the competition. Our coaching staff for the first time, I don’t know if it’s in the history, but every coach that will coach a position next year for the Bulldogs was on our staff last year. That’s hard to do after winning a national championship. So there’s something right about what we’re doing and people enjoy being there.”