Kirby Smart discusses what finishing SEC play undefeated means to him

Going undefeated in the SEC is no easy feat. Georgia did exactly that — and Kirby Smart talked about what it means to run the table.

The Bulldogs are 10-0 overall and went a perfect 8-0 in conference action. They have two non-conference games left before a conference title game for the ages, but Smart was asked what it means to go undefeated in league play.

In true Kirby Smart form, he wasn’t satisfied.

“That’s where we’ve gotten,” Smart told reporters after beating Tennessee. “It makes no guarantee for what’s going to happen in the future. We’ve got a lot of guys that we’ve got to try to get better and improve. We’ve got to tackle better, a lot of things we can work on to get better. You know what I love? The men in that locker room beside me. They all know that.

“Nobody thinks they’ve arrived. [We have] things we can work on to get better at and they’ll continue to do it. But tonight? They went through a tough gauntlet in our league and played well.”

Georgia won its eighth game in true Bulldog fashion. They went into Neyland Stadium and defeated Tennessee 41-17 to secure a perfect regular-season conference record. With two games left — Charleston Southern and Georgia Tech — Georgia has a good chance to go undefeated into the SEC championship on Dec. 4.

Kirk Herbstreit gives initial thought on a Georgia vs. Alabama matchup

The matchup is almost set: Alabama vs. Georgia in the SEC title game. So now, the question is if the Crimson Tide can be the team to finally beat the Bulldogs.

ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit isn’t convinced Alabama can pull it off.

“I don’t know if [Alabama] can climb the mountain and beat Georgia,” Herbstreit told Paul Finebaum last week. “Everything that makes a great team elite, Georgia has that.”

Alabama ranks 14th in the nation in total offense with 473.3 yards per game and its 43 points per game rank fourth in the country. The Crimson Tide run a high-powered offense, which is why they’re so dominant.

But they haven’t faced a defense of Georgia’s caliber. The Bulldogs’ defense is among the best in the country, holding teams to just 6.6 points per game — the lowest in the country. They’ve also kept teams to just 230.2 yards per contest, second only to Wisconsin, which allows 213.8 yards per game.

Georgia has already locked up a spot in the SEC championship game and Alabama is closing in on another appearance. If the Crimson Tide can pull it off, it’ll be the fourth time in five years the two teams will face off for the conference title. Alabama won the last two in 2018 and 2020, but Georgia won in 2017.