Pat Forde believes Georgia’s national championship signaled ‘changing of the guard’ in SEC

After consecutive national championships and a combined 29-1 record the last two seasons, Georgia football has taken center stage as the standard bearers of college football. And Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde, speaking on “The Paul Finebaum Show,” said he doesn’t think the Bulldogs are going to be knocked off the pedestal any time soon.

Georgia might not win a third-straight national championship, and in fact likely won’t — it hasn’t happened since Minnesota won a trio of championships consecutively in the 1930s. But the way things are going, the Bulldogs would be right back in the hunt the next year.

“They’ve won two in a row and they should be really good again next year. They obviously have to replace arguably the best quarterback in school history,” Forde said. “But still, everything else is in place and I think they’re just going to be an absolute force for the foreseeable future.”

Head coach Kirby Smart has recruited at an elite level for years now and had seen Georgia reach the College Football Playoff during the 2017-18 season. But the latest championship run has involved him elevating his game, according to Forde.

Along with elite talent and top-tier scheming and game planning, Smart has become one of the best in-game coaches in the country, according to Forde.

And really, what Smart has ultimately done is take what his mentor, Nick Saban, has done, and supercharge it.

“I think it is a changing of the guard. I really do,” Forde said. “I think that Kirby has mastered it right now the way Nick Saban was mastering it a decade or more ago. He’s figured it all out. The one thing with Kirby was I wasn’t sure he was a great in-game coach. And I think he’s gotten to the point now where he has gotten over that hump. He can recruit. He can motivate. He can game plan. And now you put him in that crucible and he starts pressing all the right buttons with great players, and look out.