Is There a Different Feeling Around Georgia or is it Just College Football Season?

Is there are different feeling around the Georgia Bulldogs heading into this season compared to last?

In 10 days, the Georgia Bulldogs will officially be kicking their 2025 college football season off at home against Marshall at 3:30 PM. The first full weekend of college football is always a special considering how long fans wait for its return and this year is, of course, no different.

As Georgia prepares for the upcoming year, there seems to be a different feeling and attitude around this program compared to other years.

Head coach Kirby Smart has talked about how young his football team is this offseason, but that it isn't necessarily a bad thing. He said that because they are young, there is more fire and energy at practice. We have also heard not just Coach Smart, but other members of the staff talk about how they feel like they are getting to really coach players this offseason.

"We are young. We've talked about that in media days, but we are hungry," Smart said. "We got a team that's fun to coach. We go out to practice each day, and they've been enthusiastic. They've been out there working out, just doing all the things you ask. Like I said, a lot of them haven't had an opportunity to play, and now this is their opportunity. Sometimes when you're coaching, it's a lot more exciting for guys when they're having their first time."

Because Georgia is young, there is also a bit of a new attitude in the locker room. Georgia ripped off back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022, but not many players on this roster can say they were a part of that. They have an SEC title to their name, but most of them don't have a national title ring propped up in a glass case at home right now.

"When you have a new team, you have new years, and you have got new guys," Smart said. "We talked about it before, I think we've got 40 or 50 guys that maybe it's completely new, first or second year players. I don't think you have to worry about your message staying fresh when you have the turnover you have, but you have to keep your message fresh based on what's ch anging in college football and offensive and defensive schemes, things people are doing outside of it and just the demand you have. Our coaches do a great job of changing things up, and I'll do the same with our guys."

Georgia is coming off a season in which they won the SEC Championship, went 10-2 in the regular season and made the college football playoff. However, there is a feeling of dissatisfaction with this year's team.

The motto "passion, fire and energy" has been thrown around a lot this offseason by Georgia. So much so, that players who display those things on the field during practice earn a blue guardian cap, to stand out amongst their teammates.

Georgia was still one of the top teams in the country last season, but anyone who watched them in 2024 could tell something was missing. So, despite entering year 10 with the Bulldogs, Coach Smart is still adapting and evolving as a head coach.

" I feel it [passion, fire and energy] every day, because if you don't have it, it's hard to be successful," Smart said. "You can't keep up. Our staff has it. Our staff has great juice. We've had a chance to reenergize."

Perhaps the feeling around Georgia's football program is just a sign of college football starting up. There's a point during every offseason where everyone feels like they have a chance. Everyone starts the season 0-0 and the anticipation for a new season builds to such a peak that the excitement can overshadow any potential shortcomings of a team.

But this type of change of energy for Georgia didn't necessarily start during the offseason. The moment Gunner Stockton walked out onto the field in the second half of the SEC Championship. There was a change of energy in the stadium and certainly a change on the sidelines during the football game, and it seems like that has carried over into this year.

A Georgia team that talks about running the football and stopping the run feels like the style of team that Dawg fans have come to love over the years, and that's been the identity Georgia has adopted this offseason. So maybe it's just that college football has been absent from our lives for far too long, but it's hard to say there isn't a different feeling in Athens heading into the 2025 season.