COLUMBIA, S.C. - The comparisons get under Nolan Smith's skin a little bit.

He doesn't like to hear this year's Georgia defense compared to last year's. Smith knows that the new faces, like Jamon Dumas-Johnson and Smael Mondon at linebacker for example, are working to make their own name in red and black.

But after the start the 2022 Bulldog defense has gotten off to, the comparisons are unavoidable.

The Bulldogs have allowed a grand total of 10 points through three games. They have allowed just one touchdown. That came late in the game on Saturday, as South Carolina mounted a drive against Georgia's defensive reserves.

Of course, that distinction doesn't matter to the Bulldogs.

"If you’re in, you’re a starter," senior outside linebacker Nolan Smith said. "They did score. No matter what, they scored. We had points on the board, and our job is don’t let anybody in our end zone. If you’re on the field, you’re a starter."

There's no complacency anywhere on the Georgia defense. Smart doesn't allow there to be. He has made it a point since spring practice that this defense has no reason to be complacent with so many new faces.

The Bulldogs, old and new, have fully bought into that mindset.

"We shouldn’t be complacent, because no one has really done anything yet. Like I said, we’ll wait for the end of the season to see what we did," sophomore inside linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson said. "When you get complacent, you get relaxed. You begin to get lazy. We try to keep that away from us. We’re looking for something bigger than that. This year’s team didn’t win the Natty, last year’s won it."

If anyone has a reason to be resting on his laurels, it's Kelee Ringo. The corner saw extensive playing time in his redshirt freshman season in 2021 and capped it off with an iconic pick-six to seal the national title.

But nope—he said he's still trying to find something to improve every day. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has repeatedly targeted Ringo in practice, urging him to improve his stance or stick tight in man coverage over the booming PA system.

Those practices, after all, are at the root of a team and player's improvement.

"The only days you can get better during the season is Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday," Smart said. "It’s hard to go out there in a game and just take 30 snaps. We get 60, 70 snaps in practice each day."

The coaching staff also gets some credit as well. Smart said Glenn Schumann, Will Muschamp, and the rest of the staff work long hours to ensure their players are always prepared.

According to one coach on staff who came from elsewhere, the Bulldogs go into more detail than just about anyone in the country.

"I had one of them reach out to me and say, 'The amount of detail and the amount of detail you put on your scout cards, the reps y'all do against the scout team are the hardest thing possible against every call,'" Smart said. "So when you get to the game, it usually makes it easier. You know, if we can play offensive coordinator and script up the hardest plays—and I think coach Schumann and that defensive staff, man, they work long, hard hours to make sure our guys see, you know, some of the toughest plays. And even then, you don't get it all right, you know?"

Through the first two games, Smart knew his defense had one thing left to prove. They hadn't, as he put it, flexed their composure muscle. Before Saturday's game in Columbia, he had chiseled freshman running back Branson Robinson stand up in front of the team to say, "This is what our composure muscle looks like."

"If your composure muscle looks like Branson Robinson, there's a good chance you need to flex it," Smart said. "I don't know if you've seen Branson's arms. And we flexed it. We had some things go wrong, not bad wrong, but we gave up some plays and we responded to it."

Is this defense better than last year's? It's hard to say. For one, the Bulldogs still have the meat of their schedule still to go. They also still have yet to be tested in a four-quarter game, something the 2021 defense got right out of the gate against Clemson.

But the early returns are positive for the Bulldogs. They hope the hungry mindset leads to an end result similar to last year as well.

"I don’t feel like we’ve accomplished too much at all," Ringo said. "We know what our end goal is, and that’s hopefully to be able to get to the playoffs and also win the national championship again."