There was a narrative going around after the 2022 college football season that Kirby Smart told his Georgia Bulldogs team that the entire nation felt like they would go 7-5 last season. 

Earlier this week, Smart pushed back against that narrative by suggesting that he never said that to his team. 

"I never thought — if I ever thought we were going 7-5, they need to check me into a psychiatric ward because I never thought that," said Smart to reporters this week. "I never said that, I never expressed that. I saw some thing where a player said that on the field or something, but these players read more stuff on Twitter and social media then I do."

While Smart denied telling his team that folks thought they'd go 7-5 last season, he admitted that he used "disrespect" to get his team going for a game or two. 

"So what I bring to them is maybe a level of disrespect before maybe one game or two games, but not a season or not a thought of that," explained Smart. 

Without mentioning the Tennessee Vols, Smart seemed to imply that Georgia's early November matchup with UT last season is one game where some things were said to the team to fire them up. 

"I’m a lot more passionate and adamant about what we’re doing over what we’re selling as what the outside world might say or this narrative that is, like, you need this narrative of the world against us," said Smart. "I think we may have had that once or twice last year, but that’s not something that we’re painting the whole time."

"A lot of people doubted us throughout the season," continued Smart. "You go back and watch some of the games before we played a team that was ranked higher than us. So that may have been a case for one game, but not necessarily the whole season.”

It's that last line where Smart seems to suggest that the Tennessee game is the main game where Georgia used some outside noise as motivation. And that makes perfect sense. The Bulldogs' matchup against the Vols last season was the only game where Georgia wasn't the higher ranked team. 

At the time, Tennessee was ranked No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings despite Georgia's status as the defending champs (and the Bulldogs were obviously undefeated at the time). 

It's easy to see why Georgia may have felt disrespected with the Vols ahead of them in the CFP rankings. And that disrespect was justified as the Bulldogs finished the season undefeated while winning their second straight national championship. 

Going into Athens as the higher ranked team was probably one of the worst things to happen to the Vols last season. Not only did it give Smart some bulletin board material to use in the locker room, but the higher ranking seemed to Tennessee's 'edge' away, essentially flipping the script of how the pre-game narrative should've gone. 

The good news for the Vols is that last year's loss in Athens likely taught the players and the coaching staff some valuable lessons about what works and what doesn't against a top opponent like Georgia. 

Also, I doubt anyone will be ranking Georgia lower than No. 1 until they lose a game, which takes one source of bulletin board material away from Smart.

Tennessee QB Joe Milton doesn’t care for one narrative that’s formed about him

Tennessee Vols QB Joe Milton doesn’t care for one narrative that’s formed about him over the last two years

Featured image via Joshua L. Jones / USA TODAY NETWORK