The Georgia Bulldogs made it through the first week of the season without much resistance and defeated Tennessee State by 60 points in a game the starters were removed by the second quarter.

Moving forward, the competition gets more difficult each week with an actual FBS opponent coming to town this week in Western Kentucky before conference play begins the following week. In no world was even Georgia's worst performance going to be enough to lose to Tennessee State, however that is not going to be the case moving forward.

Despite how strong the Bulldogs looked, Kirby Smart knows his team has to keep getting better. While speaking after the game on Saturday, Smart called out one of the groups which faced a ton of questions this spring and challenged them to continue to raise their level of play after he was not all that impressed in fall camp.

"Grow up," Smart said via UGA Sports On3 when asked his his message to the edge group. "They’ve got to grow up. They just played Tennessee State. They didn’t, you know, they didn’t play an SEC opponent. They’ve got to grow up and got to get better, because we need them better yesterday.

Two days later though, Smart has a bit more positive of a sentiment on their ability to do just that.

"I feel good about those guys," Smart said Tuesday. "Those guys have kind of been that way for a while in terms of getting reps and growing. [Quintavius Johnson] does a good job of leading that group, helping them out. Amaris [Williams] is doing it from the meeting room. Chase [Linton] has been in there with them as well, during most of camp. All those guys are getting better."

While Linton missed the opener with a lower body issue, he should be back soon, although Williams is going to miss the season after coming in as one of the prized transfers of the offseason.

Reality for this team is that they are young an inexperienced along the edge, but without an ability to rush the passer, Georgia will not be able to win a national title this season. Smart knows he is going to have to keep coaching this room up, but ultimately how big of a leap they take is also up to them.

If the players can heed the message from Smart and keep growing up and getting better, this team may have a real chance at accomplishing some very special things this year. Pass rush is the key to victory, and nobody knows that better than Smart and this coaching staff.