Georgia celebrated like a team that has been there before.
The Bulldogs won their fourth SEC East title in five years on Saturday night. They clinched thanks to Mississippi State's upset of Kentucky, which handed Georgia the crown just minutes before the calendar flipped to November.
But the Bulldogs didn't go wild in celebration of the division title. For a team with much larger aspirations, this is nothing but step one.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart took a moment to reflect on the program's success on Monday afternoon.
Prior to Smart's arrival in 2016, the Bulldogs had won the East five times in 24 seasons since the SEC split into divisions in 1992. This year marks Georgia's fourth division title in Smart's six seasons.
Smart called the SEC "the greatest conference in the country" due to the talent in the league, as well as the recruiting battles that so often take place. That devotion to recruiting is a factor Smart mentioned as being vital in building a top-flight program.
"The best coach to ever play the game better be a good recruiter because no coaching is going to out-coach players," Smart said after Georgia's 34-7 win over Florida on Saturday. "My family sacrifices so that I can go and spend time with other people's families so that we have good players. It's 25 percent evaluation, it's 50 percent recruiting and another 25 percent coaching. But if you don't recruit guys, you don't have a chance. Just go look at the best teams out there. They've got good football players. And that's why I believe in recruiting. You better always be recruiting, because if you're not, somebody else is."
Starting with Smart's first full recruiting class in 2017, Georgia has finished third, first, first, first, and fifth in recruiting each year under Smart. The Bulldogs currently hold the No. 1 spot for the Class of 2022.
Smart also noted that winning the East isn't his team's main goal. He called it the "expectation." That mindset and attitude toward always striving for more has now trickled down into the players on the team.
Senior safety Christopher Smith has now been a part of three SEC East championship teams. He called winning the division "the first step."
"This is just a stepping stone to get where we want to go," Smith said. "Our ultimate goal, we want to make it to the top. At the end of the year, we want to be the number one team in the nation. It’s definitely a goal accomplished, a milestone that we wanted to reach, but we’re not done yet at all."
Sophomore receiver Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint agreed. Even though this is his first division crown, he noted the title is "not really a goal. It's more like a stepping stone."
An Eastern Division title is certainly the first task the Bulldogs must accomplish in a championship season. Since the first division title season in 2017, Georgia has lost just twice in 27 games against Eastern opponents.
"We always take pride in winning our games in the East," Smith said. "Any team that plays us in the East, we make sure that they don’t want to play us again. That’s our goal every time we step out on the field on the East side. We want to dominate this division."
Winning the East is not the end goal for anyone involved with the Georgia program. But it's a necessary first step, and it's one the Bulldogs have now checked off the list as they continue their march toward the College Football Playoff.
