Kirby Smart Demands Georgia Ignite a “Burning Inferno” — What Does It Mean for Their Championship Hopes?

Georgia will open its season against Marshall on Aug. 30 and will follow that up with a Week 2 matchup against Austin Peay. After that, the Bulldogs will have their eyes set on a full SEC schedule the rest of the way until the late November rivalry game against Georgia Tech.

“Relentless effort, connection, rewarding a teammate, hand on a helmet, body language. It’s more than just how you play. It’s what you do between the snaps,” Smart said. “… I don’t know if it was lacking in previous years. I just know that we want it, (it’s) more rewarding. We’ve always had some form of it, but it’s the analogy of small campfires.

Ahead of the 2025 season, the Bulldogs head coach has high expectations for his players. He revealed the qualities required in order to meet the Georgia standard.

“We can have all these little small campfires, or you can have a burning inferno. We want a burning inferno. We want all of these campfires to come together and be 11 burning fires — not a couple of burning bushes over here.”

However, the Bulldogs are three seasons removed from its last national championship. After missing out of the final four-team College Football Playoff in 2023, the Bulldogs found themselves right back in the mix in 2024. Unfortunately, they fell short of that ultimate goal.

Will fall camp fully underway, it’s clear what Smart’s expectations are for his team this season. He wants those flames to burn through January.

How far they can go will be predicated on how Georgia’s players come together as a unit during the preseason. Smart plans on giving them a workload before the Bulldogs ever take the field on Saturdays this fall.

Every season, the Georgia Bulldogs march onto the gridiron carrying a weighty mantle of expectation. It’s not just about wins and losses anymore — Kirby Smart has transformed this team from a respected SEC presence to a perennial national powerhouse. Still, it’s been three long years since those last moments of championship glory, and despite coming tantalizingly close in both 2023 and 2024, the ultimate prize has eluded them. Now, as the fall of 2025 looms, Smart’s message is crystal clear: it’s about relentless grit, unshakable connection, and that spark between plays — the subtle, unspoken rituals that fuel greatness. Picture the difference between flickering campfires and an all-encompassing inferno; that’s the collective blaze he demands from his Bulldogs this year. With a savvy touch in the transfer portal, a scorching No. 2 recruiting class, and a fierce fall camp intensity where fun fades after Day 6, Georgia’s gearing up to not just compete, but to ignite a championship run that burns all the way through January. The stage is set, the stakes sky-high — and for this Bulldogs squad? There’s no room for anything less than fire. LEARN MORE

“I told them the pom-poms are out (for practices) 1-6. After 1-6, all the fun’s off, you’ve got to get ready to go,” Smart said. “That’s where teams separate themselves from this point moving forward.”

Few teams have the expectation attached to them that Georgia does every season. Kirby Smart has molded the Bulldogs from a well-respected program in the SEC, to an annual contender on the national level.

All signs point toward Georgia being a national title contender this fall. Meticulous in the NCAA transfer portal with just 10 signees and dominant in the high school recruiting scene with the No. 2 class this cycle, the Bulldogs have reloaded and are poised for another championship-caliber season.