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ATHENS — Kirby Smart and his football team moved on from its national title long ago, and now Georgia fans are being brought into the present.

The Bulldogs waited 41 years for their national championship, and Georgia fans are in no hurry to let go of those bragging rights.

The reality of losing 15 players to the NFL draft, however, has objective analysts explain why UGA is no longer considered the best team in the country, as it was most all of last season.

None of the ESPN GameDay crew picked No. 3-ranked Georgia to win the national championship this season during its Saturday telecast.

Former Michigan star and Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard was the most vocal as to why UGA is expected to take a step back.

“I do think that they will have some issues on defense this year,” said Howard, who picks Texas A&M to win the SEC and the national championship.

“Because not only did they lose a lot of talent — this was a like a historically great defense that they had — but they also lost the play caller, Dan Lanning …. I don’t think they really understand how special he was as a play caller, that shows up in the big games.”

The Bulldogs will find out right away just how valuable Lanning was when they face Lanning’s No. 11-ranked Oregon Ducks at 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 3 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

Georgia legend David Pollack called Lanning the “architect” of the defense during the same preseason show and also projected UGA to miss making the College Football Playoff field.

Howard suggested that sixth-year, 24-year-old quarterback Stetson Bennett will need to do more to lead the team than was required of him a season ago because of the imminent defensive drop-off.

“With that being said, it puts the onus on Stetson Bennett and the offense to go out there and make this a team that’s led by the offense in 2022, when in 2021, it was a team that was led by its defense,” Howard said.

“So I’m really curious to see what happens defensively, and then I want to see what type of leader Stetson Bennett is going to be with that offense.”

Bennett has made it clear he doesn’t plan to try to do too much.

“Do I think I need to be better than last year? Yeah. Do I think I’m going to need to go out there and win every single game? No,” Bennett said. “We’re still the University of Georgia, we’re still going to have great players, great O-Line, great backs, great backers, a great D-Line and great DBs.

“So, I’m going to be better than last year, but this isn’t going to be the Stetson Bennett show. It’s going to be the University of Georgia football team.”

Howard watched Bennett deliver an MVP performance in the Bulldogs’ 34-11 win over his Michigan Wolverines in the Orange Bowl, and he was impressed.

“I do think they have some firepower,” Howard said, “and Stetson Bennett is going to play with a tremendous of confidence, they love this guy, he can do no wrong in Athens right now.”

To Howard’s point, Bennett said at SEC Media Days he expects Georgia to win every game.

For all the opinions, it will play out on the football field.