georgia football uga Kirby Smart Mike Griffith

ATHENS — Georgia football has lost half of its position starters and 40 percent of its coaching staff, but there’s an air of confidence the Bulldogs won’t miss a beat.

If Kirby Smart can indeed keep his team at or near the same level of play, in the aftermath of losing a record 15 players to the NFL Draft including five first-rounders on defense, that would be miraculous.

Why?

Because it’s never been done before in any conference, much less the rough and tumble SEC.

There are some who argue there are no serious challengers in the SEC East Division, logic likely based on how teams looked last season.

A closer look at the upcoming season reveals better quarterback play ahead on the Bulldogs’ schedule.

And this against a UGA defense that figures to experience a drop-off in run defense and pass rush with four of last year’s starting front seven selected in the first round.

Three of the SEC teams Georgia faces — Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi State — open the season with returning starters at quarterback.

Two of those three games are on the road, with potential cold kickoff temperatures ahead in Starkville (Nov. 12) and Lexington (Nov. 19).

Two other East Division challengers, Florida (Anthony Richardson) and South Carolina (Spencer Rattler), have dual-threat quarterbacks that, at their best, can certainly complicate things.

There are no games on the Georgia schedule anyone would look at and proclaim a loss.

But it’s safe to assume the regular season will feature more contested matchups than last year, when the UGA defense was holding opponents to an average of 6.9 points per game.

There wasn’t any real pressure on the Bulldogs’ offense to produce in league games until the SEC Championship Game, and no one needs any reminders of what happened that afternoon.

The guess here is Smart continues to do a miraculous job of reloading — as he did last year when the Dawgs’ lost nine players to the draft — and Georgia reaches the SEC title game once again.

Just to be clear, it’s going to take a lot of work between now and then, and a season that would in many ways be more impressive than last year.