LEXINGTON, Ky. — If there was any doubt who is the dominant college football program in the SEC, much less the nation, that was decided on Nov. 5, 2022, between the hedges at Sanford Stadium.
The Tennessee Volunteers arrived in Athens, Ga., having beaten LSU, 40-13, Alabama, 52-49 and Kentucky, 44-6. The College Football Playoff selection committee had tabbed Tennessee as its No. 1 team in its initial rankings.
And Georgia promptly brought the Vols back to Earth. UT’s high-octane offense converted 2 of 14 third downs. It gained 289 total yards. It fell behind 24-6 at the half and lost 27-13 to the defending national champions and nation’s true No. 1.
So as the 10-0 Georgia Bulldogs come to Kroger Field on Saturday to face the 6-4 Kentucky Wildcats in a 3:30 p.m. game on CBS, there is the question of how did the Dawgs get here? How did Georgia go from very good to great?
Answer: Start with the top Dawg.
Kirby Smart will be 47 on Dec. 23. This is his seventh season as the head coach at his alma mater, where he was an All-SEC safety. His record: 76-15. His SEC record: 47-9. His Bulldogs lost to Alabama in the 2017 national title game, then returned the favor by beating the Crimson Tide in the 2021 national championship game.
And though Alabama started this season ranked No. 1 in the polls, the Tide is currently 8-2, having lost to both Tennessee and LSU. Meanwhile, Georgia remains unbeaten, having clinched the SEC East title with a 45-19 romp over Mike Leach and Mississippi State last week in Starkville.
Smart’s not-so-secret? Simple. Here are Georgia’s recruiting rankings, via Rivals, since Smart’s arrival: third in 2017; first in 2018; first in 2019; first in 2020; fifth in 2021; third in 2022. The Bulldogs are currently third in Rivals’ rankings for 2023.
Consider this: Five players off Georgia’s 2021 defense were first-round NFL draft picks. (The Bulldogs had 15 picks overall.) That would wreck most programs. Not Georgia. At 11.6 points per game, the Bulldogs are currently No. 2 nationally in scoring defense behind Michigan (11.2). Georgia is No. 6 nationally in total defense.
Is Kentucky coach Mark Stoops surprised?
“No,” said the coach matter-of-fact at his weekly press conference Monday. “I mean that as a compliment”
The Dawgs aren’t bad on offense, either. Hollywood story quarterback Stetson Bennett, from walk-on to national champ, leads an attack ranked third nationally in yards per game. Outside of Notre Dame’s Michael Mayer, Georgia’s Brock Bowers is the nation’s best tight end.
Todd Monken is UGA’s unsung hero. The 56-year-old offensive coordinator has a varied career background in both the NFL (Jacksonville, Cleveland, Tampa Bay) and college (LSU and Oklahoma State). As Southern Miss’s head coach from 2013-15, he turned an 0-12 team into a nine-win team his final year in Hattiesburg.
Still, it all goes back to a Smart obsession. The Georgia coach has lobbied to have the Florida-Georgia game, traditionally played in Jacksonville, changed to a home-and-home series. The reason? Smart doesn’t like giving up a recruiting weekend every year.
“No. 1, you have to credit him, I know the work that is involved and the resources,” Stoops said. “It is a very good place, and they are in the heart of some very, very good players, arguably some of the greatest players in the country. But that’s not to demean the work that he put in and his staff puts in and how hard they’ve grinded on recruiting and developed them.”
Smart is 6-0 against Kentucky by a combined 168-70. Vegas expects more of the same Saturday. Georgia is a 22.5-point favorite over the Cats, who are coming off a home loss to Vanderbilt, a program that had lost 26 straight SEC games and had not won a conference road game since 2018.
“They are awfully impressive in every way, shape or form,” Stoops said Monday of the top Dawgs “They deserve to be where they’re at and we have a great challenge ahead of us.”
