Joel Klatt: Georgia is not the same Georgia of the last two years

Georgia has not looked as dominant through five games this season after coming off a pair of national championships. While they’ve now won 22 straight contests, FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt has noticed that clear difference too.

Klatt examined the start of the ‘Dawg’s season during his show on Monday. To him, the fact of the matter is that Georgia, while they still remain a very real contender, is not the same team that they’ve been during their 29-1 run over the course of ’21 and ’22.

“This Georgia team is not Georgia as we know them. It’s not. The verdict is in, at least in that regard,” Klatt said. “That doesn’t mean they’re not good. And it doesn’t mean they’re not going to win the SEC and be in the playoff. But this is clearly not the same Georgia of what we’re used to over the last two, three, and four years but, certainly, the last two when they’ve been to back-to-back national championships.”

Much of Klatt’s belief is how UGA has looked against South Carolina and Auburn. Add in how the numbers have evened out in the run game for them and their opponents and he sees this team as fundamentally different.

“Now we have data, now we have evidence,” said Klatt. “What is Georgia this year? They are a shell of what they were in the past.”

“I get it that they’re wearing the same uniforms. I get it,” Klatt said. “They’ve got the same coach and I get it that they’ve got the same star in Brock Bowers. But the heart and soul of what Georgia was over the last two years was a dominant team in the run game at the line of scrimmage and on defense. That’s not the case anymore, at least not right now.”

For now, Georgia remains one of the best teams in the SEC and the nation if for no other reason than the benefit of the doubt. Even so, based on what he has seen, or not seen, so far, Klatt now has two teams above the two-time defending champs as we head into October.

“Georgia’s not the same, folks. Georgia is not the same. That’s why I moved them out of my poll, out of the first five in my poll,” explained Klatt. “Granted, I only moved them to three. But I look at Michigan and Texas and I’m like, ‘Okay, you’re better than Georgia’. They are! Those two teams would beat Georgia next week, maybe in Athens.”

“I know Georgia fans will be incensed at that but it’s the truth because Georgia is not the same,” Klatt said. “They’re not the same, not this year.”