Throughout the year you heard Georgia defensive players talk about “going to the doctor” to correct the mistakes from the game before.

Prior to the Bulldogs’ National Championship victory over TCU, co-defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann explained exactly what that phrase meant.

“The first thing we do on Sunday, no matter what the scoreboard says, is to be extremely critical in our write-up of what we did in the game,” Schumann said. “We go from things we did well to things we did poorly to preparation errors to personnel errors. Maybe we weren't in the right personnel grouping, or we mismanaged a substitution, whatever it was, and then other comments on the game, things that you would do the next time you played that opponent. If you were playing the game tomorrow, what would you have changed.”

Opponents matter not.

It’s all about correcting the mistakes from the previous week.

“The list of things we did well, no matter if we're playing Samford or Ohio State, is always much shorter than the list of things we did poorly in our preparation errors because we try to be as critical as possible of what we do, no matter what the scoreboard says,” Schumann said. “I think you approach things the same way. Let's be really critical of what we need to fix, look at it, assess whether it was schematic, whether it was coaching-based, whether it was excuse-based, or whether it was technique-based.”

But even the best-laid plans sometimes go awry.

As Schumann explained, sometimes a defense can be in position and still give up a big play.

“You’ve just got to focus on what you can do better yourself as a unit and as a team, and as a coach or a player,” he said. “We try to approach it that way. That's how you continue to get better and have success.”

That’s certainly the way the Bulldogs approached the season last fall.

Even with so much talk about who all Georgia lost defensively from the season before, the Bulldogs were able to maintain the standard that many thought they would be unable to do.

“We don't relax our standards based on who we're playing or what they're good at. We're proud of the way they competed, but the guys were resilient and never gave up,” Schumann said. “You all can look at the scoreboard and say we gave up way too many points, way too many explosives. But the guys on the sideline were resilient. They knew that we had to get one. The next drive was the only drive we could control.”

If you’ve listened to head coach Kirby Smart before, you’ve heard this line of thinking before. As the Bulldogs move forward into spring practice and ultimately the 2023 campaign, you’ll hear it again.

“If we get one stop, we get the offense back the ball, and we try to get another stop. And the guys did that. And I don't know how you can say you're disappointed with somebody when they never quit. And they were resilient,” Schumann said. “As a coach, you preach all the time about playing without a scoreboard. And they did that. Do we want the results to be better? Absolutely. Okay. Nobody shies away from that, players and coaches included. But you can't be disappointed with people who never stopped chomping, never stopped focusing on what they had to do for us to win.”