Kirby Smart learned a lot about his reloaded Georgia football team, including what most everyone close to the program suspected.

“They got resiliency, they got toughness,” Smart said after the game, “and they better get a lot better.”

Smart said in fall camp this Bulldogs team was behind the past two, and he knew they would be tested at some point just like the 2021 and 2022 units.

That test unfolded at home on Saturday, conveniently enough, as No. 1 Georgia has one more warm-up game before plunging completely into the SEC schedule.

The Bulldogs rallied for a 24-14 win over South Carolina on Saturday at Sanford Stadium, overcoming a 14-3 halftime deficit.

“I was pretty excited at half because I said, ‘We’re going to find out what kind of team we got, this is it, right here, this is our moment,’ " Smart said.

“We’ve had moments in other games and we’re going to win one moment at a time in the second half. No one is going to go out there and score a 14-point touchdown.”

The Bulldogs asserted themselves in dominant fashion in the third quarter, the defensive staff making key adjustments to cool off what had been a red-hot Spencer Rattler.

The offense, meanwhile, game out gunning in the second half and showed some firepower with third-time starter Carson Beck and its transfer receivers before turning it over to the ground game.

Smart liked what he saw from Mike Bobo’s offense once it opened the second half with two TD drives and was setting up for a field goal attempt as the third quarter ended.

“I can say that we played good in the second half, and we’re going to try and figure out what is going on in the first half,” Smart said, eager to get to the film room and evaluate his team.

“I thought we created an identity …. how we played in the second half.”

South Carolina Shane Beamer saw his quarterback, Spencer Rattler, lead upsets that knocked Tennessee and Clemson out of last year’s CFP playoff picture.

But Beamer knew, having worked under Smart before, the Georgia head coach would have sharp halftime adjustments in store.

“They showed what a championship team does and why they have won back-to-back national championships,” Beamer said, “coming back in the second half and playing like they did.”

Smart saw his program grow with the win, learning a valuable lesson about focus and resiliency along the way.

“You’re going to win one moment at a time, play-by-play,” Smart said. “When we lose a moment, we have to win the next moment, and they kind of bought into that.”