When Kirby Smart took over at Georgia after the 2015 season, we didn't detect much fear of him from inside Clemson's football offices based on conversations with those who had been around him and even worked with him.

Smart's last 60 minutes as Alabama's defensive coordinator were mostly torture as Deshaun Watson and Hunter Renfrow sliced up his defense before the Crimson Tide survived 45-40 in the national title game.

And there would be more Clemson-related torment for Georgia over the next five years. Watson, the kid from a Bulldog down whom Mark Richt and Mike Bobo slow-played years earlier, got his championship in 2016.

Two years later, Smart watched another Georgia boy win a national title when Trevor Lawrence lit up Alabama. And in 2019 and 2020, a transfer from Georgia (Justin Fields) led Ohio State to back-to-back playoffs while the Bulldogs fell short of the final four.

For longtime Dog people, the 1980 thing brought general pain. For longtime Dog people who can't stand Clemson, the fact that Clemson won three national titles with quarterbacks from Georgia (1981 winner Homer Jordan was from Athens) brought specific pain.

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Georgia finally won a national title five nights ago, but there's no doubt Clemson's football staff began taking Smart and the Bulldogs seriously long before this week.

While fans have the luxury of converting their hatred of Smart and Georgia into unsound notions that the Bulldogs were going to continue to "Kirby it up" just because of a series of high-profile face-plants on the big stage, coaches tend to view things in less emotional terms.