It is full speed ahead for the University of Georgia football program and, as the country’s premier gridiron chief is affectionately known on the Bulldog Radio Network airwaves, Coach King Kirby Smart.

College football’s landscape has undergone sudden, radical changes in the 2020s. Through it all – “NIL,” the transfer portal, the tripling of the size of the college football playoff, and league reconstructions so devoid of geographic basis that the University of California is playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference (sponsored by BoJangles and Ingles, which, as of now, boast no stores in Berkeley … or Palo Alto for that matter) – Smart has steered Georgia’s powerhouse program full steam ahead into elite greatness.

Since the second season as the head coach of his, and First Lady extraordinaire, Andy Landers sharpshooting No. 3 Mary Beth Lycett Smart, alma mater, Smart’s Bulldogs have accrued extraordinary success, rising to the mountaintop of college football. Kirby’s Canines have put together one of the great stretches of success in college football annals.

Dating back to 2017, Georgia has:

• Captured the national championship in 2021 and 2022. The Bulldogs became the lone team in the playoff era to win consecutive titles, joining programs like Southern Cal, Alabama, Nebraska and Oklahoma as back-to-back national champions. Smart initiated into a fraternity including the likes of Bear Bryant, Nick Saban, Bud Wilkinson, Tom Osborne, Bob Devaney and Pete Carroll.

• Played in seven straight “Major Bowls.” The previous school record of consecutive major bowls was four set in the Golden days of the Vince Dooley era from 1980-1983. Going back to the Sugar Bowl win over Baylor to cap the 2019 season, the Bulldogs have won seven consecutive bowl/national championship games. That’s a program record.

• Finished in the top ten of the polls in seven successive seasons. That’s also a program record, topping the 1980-1983 streak when the Bulldogs went 43-4-1 with the 1980 national title and three other top five finishes.

• Posted a record of either 11-1 or 12-0 in six of seven regular seasons. Georgia went 11-1 in the regular seasons of 2017, 2018 and 2019. The Bulldogs were 8-2 in the 2020 Covid campaign. Over the last three years, Georgia became the first team in college football history to post three consecutive 12-0 regular seasons, becoming the first program ever to be 12-0 at some point in three straight campaigns. The Bulldogs became the first team since Georgia from 1980-1982 to post three straight undefeated SEC marks.

• Are 46-2 over the last 48 games, a stretch that began with a 31-24 victory over Mississippi State in 2020.

• Set the SEC record with a 29-game winning streak, breaking the mark previously held by Alabama, with last season’s 31-23 victory over the Jackets on the Flats.

• Became the first team to ever appear in the SEC Championship Game six times in seven years. The league expanded to 12 teams and split into divisions in 1992, a format that came to an end this past season. No coach, not Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban or Urban Meyer, ever did that. Until Kirby Smart.

• Amassed an astounding record against the Bulldogs arch rivals. Smart’s Bulldogs over the last seven seasons are 26-2 versus the Yellow Jackets (6-0), Florida (6-1), Auburn (7-1, including seven straight wins) and Tennessee (7-0).

Making Georgia’s rise to greatness even more remarkable is that it began at the height of Nick Saban’s dynasty at Alabama, and with Dabo Swinney just up the road at Clemson. From 2009-2020, the Crimson Tide and Tigers combined to win eight national titles, with Georgia falling to the Red Elephants in a trio of heartbreakers … one in particular for the big prize.

Bordering powers putting the squeeze on Georgia.

It’s fitting that Georgia’s breakthrough national championship campaign of 2021, the proud program’s first since 1980, opened with a victory over Clemson in Charlotte and concluded with the ultimate triumph against Alabama in the title tilt in Indianapolis.

Smart’s Bulldogs flexing out.

He is a dynamic Chief Executive Officer of Georgia Football.

At the heart of Smart’s success is authenticity, his love, his family’s love for Georgia. Like so many of us, he grew up dreaming of being a Bulldog. That came true, first as a standout player, and now as the Bulldogs head coach. And it goes well beyond football. The numerous altruistic endeavors from Team Smart have had an enormous impact on Athens, the state of Georgia and the University. At this summer’s annual “Giving Day,” the Kirby Smart Family Foundation will eclipse the $2 Million mark for charitable gifts.

Mining the fertile recruiting fields for blue chippers and diamonds in the rough, Smart and his staff have mastered roster management.

And player development.

A record 15 Bulldogs were taken in the 2022 NFL Draft, including five defensive first rounders. In the 2020s, Georgia has put more players in the pros than any school. That ranges from “five stars” to Stetson Bennett. A former walk-on who returned to Georgia after a stint at junior college, the underdog quarterback was the Most Valuable Player of four College Football Playoff victories on the Bulldogs national championship runs and a Heisman finalist in 2022.

These are amazing times for Georgia, and expectations will once again rightfully be sky high. In this era of unprecedented change, Smart’s leadership and loyalty stands even taller, a Gibraltar in turbulent seas.

As a wise old coach once said, the key to happiness is making today the good old days. Here we are. With many more to come. Maybe even on January 20 in Atlanta, basking in confetti.