After a No. 3 recruiting class and an entertaining G-Day, Georgia fans are pretty fired up about year two under Kirby Smart.

But on Tuesday at SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Fla. he was asked about his first year and he didn’t sugarcoat his feelings on how things went down.

“Year one was disappointing,” Smart said. “Anytime you go 8-5 it’s a disappointment at the University of Georgia. It’s certainly not up to my standard.”

The Bulldogs lost three games by one score on the season. Those came against Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and Georgia Tech and they all came down to plays late in the fourth quarter.

Against the Volunteers it was a last-second Hail Mary that sunk the Bulldogs. Against Vanderbilt it was a failed fourth-down attempt when the team was trailing by just one point and driving.

Georgia Tech broke the Bulldogs’ hearts with broken trick play when running back Qua Searcy took a toss sweep and looked for the throwback pass before tucking it and diving into the end zone for the go-ahead score.

Close games like that are something Smart expects in the SEC. He cited a statistic that 33 percent of league games are decided by one score or less. But there were also defeats that weren't so close. Ole Miss throttled the Bulldogs in Oxford early in the season by a score of 45-15 -- a game in which Ole Miss carried a 31-0 lead into halftime.

There was also the annual showdown in Jacksonville with Florida where the Bulldogs were handled 24-10 and never really seemed to get any offensive momentum going.

Smart has reason to believe his team can improve in year two with players like Jacob Eason, the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback, having much more experience under their belt than they did a year ago.

“I think having a freshman quarterback is a tough row to hoe,” Smart said. “But that freshman is a sophomore. Let’s see how much better he’s gotten. Let’s see how much push we can get on him with competition behind him.”

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