Bulldogs 'Not Going Anywhere' After Championship Loss

ATLANTA, GA — It was a heartbreaker for Georgia fans Monday night, as their dream season slipped away in an overtime loss to Alabama in the college football National Championship game.

But it wasn't long before everyone from Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, to his players to a reinvigorated fan base started looking ahead to what many expect to be a promising future for the Bulldogs.

“I think everybody can see that Georgia’s going to be a force to be reckoned with," Smart said in a press conference after the 26-23 loss at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. "I am very proud of this team and this university, and we’re not going anywhere."

In just his second year at the helm in Athens, Smart — who had spent the last decade as an assistant to six-time championship winner Nick Saban at Alabama — led the Dawgs to a 13-2 season, an SEC Championship and a thrilling 54-48, double-overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.

Even with the loss, the Bulldogs' 2017 campaign was their best since a 13-1 run in 2002 in then-coach Mark Richt's second year on the job. And, on Monday night, there was every reason to believe that a squad that, in recent years, had been consistently relegated to the good-but-not-great category had become a serious player on the national scene.

"Let this moment drive us," sophomore receiver Riley Ridley said after Monday's loss. "We had an unbelievable season that we had goals for. This was one of them, and we actually pulled up a little short, but this just has to motivate us. It has to drive us. It has to bring us back next year. It has to be a part of us.

"It has to have our (practices on) Tuesdays and our Wednesdays more physical than this year. That’s what we’re going to drive off of — this loss."

There are a handful of questions to be answered first.

Butkus Award-winning linebacker Roquan Smith — considered by many to be the best defensive player in the nation — and cornerback Deandre Baker are both juniors. Monday night, both said they have not yet decided whether they will enter the NFL draft or return for their senior seasons.

But there will be plenty to build around in Athens either way. That starts with quarterback Jake Fromm who, as a true freshman, showed admirable poise and ability since being thrust into the starting role when Jacob Eason was injured in the first game of the season.

He threw for 232 yards and a touchdown Monday against Alabama's notoriously stingy defense and showed no signs that the moment was too big for a player who was still in high school this time last year.

And while Georgia's running back tandem of Nick Chubb and Sony Michel will be moving on, both potentially as first-round picks in the NFL draft, the school sometimes called "Running Back U." has developed a stable of backs ready to take their place.

On Monday, sophomore Mecole Hardman ran for one touchdown and scored another on an 80-yard reception. He'll be joined in next year's backfield by D'Andre Swift, Ameer Speed, Elijah Holyfield and possibly rising freshman Zamir White — the nation's No. 1 ranked running back out of Laurinburg, N.C. who signed with Georgia over Alabama, Clemson, North Carolina and Ohio State on early-signing day last month.

And, about early-signing day ...

Smart came to Georgia with a reputation as a masterful recruiter. And, in his first full year overseeing the process for the Bulldogs, he came up big, landing what most observers were calling the top recruiting class in the nation.

The Bulldogs blew away what were already high expectations, signing six five-star prospects on the first day high school athletes were allowed to ink scholarship deals. The Bulldogs had never signed more than three five-stars in a single year before.

Even with Fromm in the fold, those numbers included Justin Fields, a highly ranked, five-star quarterback out of Harrison High School in Kennesaw.

All of that had analysts saying that, while the dream fell just short for Bulldog Nation on Monday night, it's not likely to be their last shot at a national title.

"The way Kirby Smart has things structured in Athens is eerily similar to how it’s done in Tuscaloosa," wrote SB Nation's Morgan Moriarty. "The former Saban experiment that has failed so many times in the past is up and running at full speed at Georgia, and it’s here to stay.

"The way that Alabama has been loaded for years, replacing blue-chip with more star-studded rosters, is where Georgia is now, and Smart is just in his second season."

Photo via Associated Press