Sports

Kirby Smart reflects on lack of playoff success at SEC Media Days

Georgia Bulldogs On SI · Jul 21, 2026 15:21 · 3 min read

Kirby Smart Reflects on Lack of Playoff Success at SEC Media Days — Apr 18, 2026; Athens, GA, USA; Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart shown on the field during the Georgia Spring football game at Sanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart reflects on his recent lack of playoff success at SEC Media days.

Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart reflects on his recent lack of playoff success at SEC Media days.

The 2026 SEC Media days have officially kicked off. Kirby Smart kicked off the second day of media days as he was the firts SEC coach to take the podium on Tuesday.

While at the podium, Coach Smart was asked about his recent lack of success in the college football playoffs. The Bulldogs have lost in the quarterfinal round two years in a row and they have not won a playoff game since 2022 when they last won the national championship.

Here is what Coach Smart had to say on the subject.

Kirby Smart Discusses Recent Lack of Success in the Playoffs

Jan 1, 2026; New Orleans, LA, USA; Mississippi Rebels quarterback Trinidad Chambliss (6) talks with Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart (R) during a timeout during the 2026 Sugar Bowl and quarterfinal game of the College Football Playoff at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

"I don't know that I can put that into perspective," Smart said. "I think you forget we also lost to a SEC team within the Playoffs. So it's another tribute to the fact we won the SEC because we beat that team, and then won the SEC Championship and turned around and lost to an SEC team that was a really good football team, and obviously one of the top four teams in the country, especially at the end year with the way they were playing. I don't get hung up a lot on just the finish. I like to look back and say, okay, what did with do well in those games and what did we do poorly and how do we improve on it? That's no differently than I do week five, week six, week seven. So I would love to see -- and I don't make this an excuse -- but I would love to see the flow of the season go like a football, a week to week, maybe a bye week in there, but a continuous thing. No sport that I know of shuts down for 25 to 30 days between performances. We have not had our best performances when we needed them most, and I don't want it blame it on that. I would love to see a flow of a season be like, okay, which team is the strongest continually playing and going week to week. We've got some opportunities to do that in the future. I hope we can get to that point. But the format we play with now is great. When it was a two-team format I was part of it. When it was four teams, I was part of it. You can also argue the opposite, especially if it doesn't go your way. That's not who I am."

The Bulldogs are coming off another successful season. In 2025, Georgia went 11-1 in the regular season with their lone loss coming to the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Bulldogs would later avenge that loss in the SEC Championship game, winning their second SEC title in as many years. Unfortunately, Georgia's season came to an end in the quarterfinals to Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl.

Georgia was labeled as a young roster coming into last season and that remains to be the case heading into this season as well. However, Georgia does have a good number of veteran players in the starting lineup on both sides of the ball, and three of them were brought to SEC Media days with coach Smart.

Linebacker Raylen Wilson, center Drew Bobo and quarterback Gunner Stockton were the players Coach Smart elected to bring with him to Tampa this week. Those three names are players the Bulldogs will be relying on, along with others, this upcoming season in their search for another national title.