I know what Kirby Smart said.

The Georgia coach said that he refuses to use the College Football Playoff National Championship loss as a motivating tool for 2018 because “that team is no longer here.”

I believe that he believes that.

I also believe that he’s using that national championship loss to motivate himself. Let’s not forget that it was his defense that didn’t have an answer for Alabama late in the title game (and really didn’t have an answer until late in the Rose Bowl). Call me crazy, but something tells me that’s been eating at him.

Smart’s comments about his defense throughout spring ball suggest that.

You better believe 2017 is over, and if there's anyone who thought coming a play short of a national championship was good enough, you've got another thing coming.

“We’ve got a long way to go in the secondary. We had a unique unit of DBs that played a long time. With them gone, we’re trying to get some guys in here to fill that void,” Smart said following Georgia’s second scrimmage last week. “We’re not where we need to be, we don’t have the depth we need and we’re not playing at the level we need to play at.”

And what about the defensive line, coach?

“… I’ll be honest with you. We are so low numbers on the defensive line, we are extremely struggling on the defensive line from a depth standpoint,” Smart said over the weekend.

“We’re not where we need to be.” “We don’t have the depth.” “We’re not playing to the level we need to play at.” Smart’s message to his defense is loud and clear.

You better believe 2017 is over, and if there’s anyone who thought coming a play short of a national championship was good enough, you’ve got another thing coming.

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

In his latest bit of Nick Saban-esque behavior, Smart is absolutely right. Openly criticizing a unit in spring ball might come off as a bit much, but frankly, it makes perfect sense for him to do it. The last thing he wants is for that group to head into the summer thinking it’ll be able to flip the switch once August rolls around and it’ll be just like 2017 again.

That’s not how it works in the SEC. That’s especially not how it works for a team pursuing perfection.

Smart knows that his defense is going to have a completely new identity in 2018. Without the Roquan Smiths and Lorenzo Carters, there’s no guarantee that Georgia can actually flip the switch that was on for most of 2017. The margin for error will be slimmer and the preseason expectations are going to be greater. Period.

How do you brace for that? In Smart’s eyes, it isn’t patting everyone on the back and saying that “Players X, Y and Z have really been stepping up in practice” or “we made some nice progress today.”

Who. Cares.

This isn’t about trying to give young guys confidence. This is about trying to win national titles.

If Smart wanted to just spew out coachspeak about his team’s spring performance, he’d do it. There’s a time and a place for that. His way of providing spring motivation is different. And if he’s criticizing his defense’s depth publicly, I can only imagine how critical Smart has been without a microphone.

It isn’t just the defense that was subject to criticism from the Dawgs head coach. Smart even shared a little motivational tool for kick returner Mecole Hardman (via 247sports).

“(Former Georgia star) Isaiah McKenzie texted me every week and said, ‘Coach if I’d had that much room I’d have seven touchdowns.’ So he was calling Mecole out, not me,” Smart said. “But I do think it’s an open competition.”

Nobody is above criticism in the Georgia locker room. Smart is breaking down his team in hopes that it’ll build them into champions. He’s neither the first nor the last to do that.

Call it tough love if you want. I’d call it a coach who nearly tasted a national title and is doing whatever he can to satisfy that craving.

It probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Smart went this route. After all, he was the guy who lit into Jake Fromm for not reaching to get an extra yard during a blowout win at Vanderbilt. Smart is also the guy who had his players squatting 60 percent of their maxes immediately after coming back from the Rose Bowl.

Of course Smart wasn’t going to take his foot off the gas in the spring. Some of his comments sound more like a coach who just lost a mid-October conference game instead of someone 3 months removed from a national title berth. Even if Georgia fails to get back to the title game in 2018, I don’t see that year-round critical approach changing anytime soon.

Nor should it.