New Georgia coach Kirby Smart spoke to his players for the first time on Sunday night, and it apparently wasn’t a long talk, but something he said will resonate with the players for a long time.

A couple Bulldogs players who were available to the media on Monday relayed that message.

“He told us it’s not a big difference between us and Alabama, except the margin of error,” sophomore linebacker Davin Bellamy said.

There certainly seemed to be a big difference back on Oct. 3.

That day, Alabama humiliated Georgia 38-10 between the hedges. Kirby Smart, in his defensive coordinator position across the sidelines, stifled his new team’s offense by holding it to a season-worst 35.5 completion percentage and causing three turnovers (Georgia committed a fourth due to a blocked punt for a TD).

Smart seemed to communicate to the team that those miscues are the main difference. Sophomore tight end Jeb Blazevich said their new coach held two fingers an inch apart to illustrate just how small that margin of error is. The message was clear: Georgia isn’t lacking in talent.

“That’s what he told us last night, and I think that’s what we all believe. We’re all being recruited by both teams,” Blazevich said. “We’re looking forward to the changes that might get us to that.”

That loss still haunts the Bulldogs today.

“We know we could’ve played better. And we definitely have enough talent to be able to compete with anybody in the SEC,” Bellamy said. “It’s just those little things we need to fix. And I think he’s bringing that to our attention, it kinda got everybody locked in.”