Kirby Smart looks back at what made Georgia’s defense so dominant in 2021
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs won the national championship last season on the strength of a historically great defense.
Even in today’s high-scoring era of college football, the Bulldogs were nearly impossible to score on (save for Alabama’s performance in the SEC Championship Game).
So, what made the Dawgs so great on that side of the ball last year? Kirby Smart joined “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning” on WJOX on Wednesday to discuss the Bulldogs’ defensive dominance:
.@GeorgiaFootball head coach @KirbySmartUGA stopped by @MacandCube at the @RegionsTrad to break down what made the Bulldogs' defense so dominant in 2021.
Catch the whole conversation with Kirby here: https://t.co/hUWrfLAGqW pic.twitter.com/FBANz5QVyk
— WJOX 94.5 FM (@WJOX945) May 11, 2022
“I think we sell that what you do affects the other guy,” he said. “We teach it as a total defense. I don’t think we do anything that anybody else in the country doesn’t do. We had really good players, and the talent did have a lot to do with it, because they’re really good players. But they believed in each other, that if each one of them played well, they would accomplish more. They bought into that. …
“We compared this defense to the greatest defenses in all of college football history. We didn’t compare them to the other 5 teams in college football, we compared them to the teams from 10-15 years past. They bought into that. They really liked the competition and being the best.”
Several players from Georgia’s defense are now in the NFL after this year’s draft. Can the Dawgs reload? We’ll find out this fall!
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
