After five months of waiting, the final 2025 US LBM Coaches Poll has been released, revealing each coach’s individual vote. Kirby Smart’s rankings for sure offer a few telling insights. 

Smart placed Georgia at No. 5, which reflects a strong but ultimately bittersweet season that ended with a Sugar Bowl loss to Ole Miss. His top four followed a clear playoff-driven logic: Indiana and Miami received his first two votes, followed by Ole Miss and Oregon in the third and fourth spots.

Ohio State is ranked 6th after losing to Miami in the Cotton Bowl, followed by Texas Tech, which lost to Oregon in the quarterfinals.

In the 8th spot, Kirby ranked Kalen DeBoer’s Alabama, which concluded their season after a brutal loss to Indiana in the Rose Bowl. In the subsequent spot, the Georgia head coach has ranked Texas A&M and Oklahoma, respectively.

His top six to 10 teams are those programs that have lost to his top five teams, except Oklahoma, which was beaten by the Tide during the quarterfinals. It’s interesting to note that despite Texas and Michigan reaching the Citrus Bowl, Kirby has ranked them six spots apart.

Georgia’s No. 5 ranking under Kirby Smart was largely met with agreement across college football. Several SEC rivals, Clark Lea, Jon Sumrall, Mike Elko, and Eli Drinkwitz, all placed the Bulldogs right at No. 5, while many others had them just a spot lower at No. 6.

However, Bulldogs weren’t ranked lower than seventh on any ballot, except for an outlier. Only Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire and Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi both put Georgia at No. 7. Luke Fickell, meanwhile, left Georgia off his ballot entirely, which might be an accident.

Much to the Dawgs’ delight, Air Force’s Troy Calhoun is the only coach who has ranked the Dawgs at No.2. Not just that, Colorado State’s Jim Mora has ranked the Dawgs at No. 3, followed by Rhett Lashlee, Dave Aranda, and seven others ranking the program at No. 4th.

While Kirby Smart has ranked his program in the top five, he admits to his mistake that led to Georgia losing the Sugar Bowl. While his trick call against Texas worked like a charm, it backfired against Ole Miss.

With ten minutes on the clock, Kirby swapped the punt team with the offensive unit during the Rebels’ timeout, which caused confusion. Center Malachi Toliver snapped the ball early to a confused QB in Gunner Stockton, who was eventually sacked.

“Yeah, we scr-wed that up a little bit. We had a misfire there,” Smart said post-game. “The ball was not supposed to be snapped in that situation, but that was on us as coaches. It was on me and our guys. It’s not on the players, and Gunnar and those guys did a nice job executing it.”

Undoubtedly, there is a lot to work on during the offseason.

Kirby Smart is working on locker room chemistry

In the 2025 season, Georgia failed to reach the national championship game. But on a positive note, the program has not seen significant attrition to the transfer portal (12-2 record). With a mere fourteen departures, Smart has added eight additions to the locker room.

Kirby Smart has added only eight players from the transfer portal, but they have had a significant impact. The 6’4, 215-pound WR Isiah Canion and Ja’Marley Riddle are the impact makers on the above list.

Not only that, but there will also be two sets of siblings on the roster, adding to the strong locker room chemistry: senior TE Lawson Luckie and freshman DL Carter Luckie, and Redshirt sophomore DL Nnamdi Ogboko and freshman OT Ekene Ogboko.

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Almost 30% of the 2026 roster will have at least one high school teammate. This offseason, the focus will primarily be on building locker room camaraderie.