Lane Kiffin discusses what it meant to finally beat SEC 'bully' Georgia

Along with changing the complexion of the College Football Playoff race and earning one of the biggest home wins in program history, Ole Miss beating Georgia on Saturday meant something to Lane Kiffin.

Because in beating Georgia, Kiffin said on the “Paul Finebaum Show” on Wednesday, the Rebels had vanquished the SEC’s biggest and baddest bully. And Kiffin had some stats to back up his claim.

“So, that was big as a program and just because Georgia’s been the elite program for a long time and kind of been the bully and, you know, 52 straight games, that’s a lot of games — besides Alabama — that they’ve won, all the way back to Covid,” Kiffin said. “And I think one regular season loss in four or five years. So, that was really big for our program, for our current team, for their confidence and for recruiting, as well.”

Since going 8-2 during the 2020 Covid season where the SEC played only conference opponents, Georgia had been on a dominant run.

Over the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons, the Bulldogs went 42-2, winning a pair of national titles along the way. The only two losses came to Alabama in the 2021 and 2023 SEC Championship games.

The last non-Covid regular season loss for Georgia prior to this year came Oct. 12, 2019, against South Carolina. And the last regular season road loss for the Bulldogs was a year prior to that, at LSU on Oct. 13, 2018.

Suffice to say, Kiffin’s assessment about Georgia rolling through the SEC of late is apt. And while the Bulldogs picked up a loss to Alabama earlier this season — the Crimson Tide have been the only team to consistently beat the Bulldogs in this span — it was looking possible that Kirby Smart and Co. would once against pull out an 11-1 campaign and lead the way in the SEC.

Then Saturday in Oxford happened, and Kiffin and Co. now have a chance to shift the narrative of who can win out in the SEC.

“Well like I said, we’ve got a lot of season left here,” Kiffin said. “A lot of, hopefully, games to play and a lot of things to accomplish.”