Kirby Smart found a way to exploit a unique trait from his 2021 championship team

Georgia's defense on their 2021 National Championship winning team was something special. That group could potentially go down as the best defense in Georgia football history.

Georgia also had Stetson Bennett quarterbacking their offense, and everyone knows how his career ended up going.

The Bulldogs' pass catchers however were one group that wasn't talked about that much. In fact, nobody knew of any of the players that ended up leading that team in receiving before the season began. That clearly ended up not being a problem for Georgia in 2021, but this year's team is facing that same situation entering the fall.

Kirby Smart can look at 2021 for guidance this season

Georgia's four leading receivers in 2021 were Brock Bowers, Jermaine Burton, Ladd McConkey and AD Mitchell. All four players were underclassmen with three being freshmen, so the expectations on them were not that high heading into the 2021 season.

They all however performed much better than anyone expected and played a huge role in Georgia winning the National Championship.

Fast forward to this year and Georgia finds themselves in a very similar position. The Bulldogs lost nearly all of their top receivers from last season, including Zachariah Branch who set the single season receptions program record. That is going to be nearly impossible to replace because all of the new players stepping in have very little experience.

Players like Sacovie White-Helton, Talyn Taylor, Landon Roldan and Thomas Blackshear will need to step up in their first seasons as true contributors. Then there is incoming transfer Isiah Canion who has a lot of experience in college, but will have to learn how to play in Georgia's system.

Thankfully Kirby Smart has experience winning with a lot of new faces in Georgia's receiving room because if they are going to win big again this year this group is going to have to outperform the expectations currently on them.