ROWE: Georgia overcame the odds, now history is within reach

Los Angeles, Calif. — What Georgia did yesterday evening was incredibly hard to do and don’t let anyone tell you differently. Against at least six ranked teams, three inside the top 10, it went 15-0. It did it a year after hoisting the trophy and getting a massive monkey off its back.

Teams aren’t supposed to run it back like that, at least not teams that just had a chance to exhale like the Bulldogs did one year ago. Not a single soul would have criticized UGA had it dropped a game or two and ended up in the Sugar Bowl. That wouldn’t have been the end of the world. Remember Alabama in 2010?

“Next year!” Georgia fans would have said while also talking about how much talent Kirby Smart has amassed. Everyone would know what UGA is capable of year in and year out under Smart. It would have gotten plenty of respect and consideration.

At times it looked easy for this 2022 group. Close calls against Missouri and Ohio State notwithstanding — and those are just part of it — the Bulldogs were in control throughout the 2022 season.

Smart believes it’s because of this team’s DNA. He says it wasn’t as hard as many thought it would be. Maybe let Smart tell you how hard it was, but no one else.

But Georgia lost so much…

This seemed like a problem, too. Georgia lost three defensive linemen to the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. It lost a linebacker and a safety in the first round as well. It lost 15 players overall and a ton of production and leadership with it.

If you want to be considered a high-level program, you either have the talent to overcome such losses or you reach into the portal to get the missing pieces. But overcoming those losses, even for the best of the best, means simply having a chance to compete for it all — not total domination.

Two things: Georgia didn’t get anyone out of the portal and its bounce back was a season in which it established itself as a behemoth in game one and manhandled almost everyone from there on out.

Finding a way…

What Georgia did in 2022 is key if this team wants to make history in 2023. The Bulldogs reinvented themselves. The 2022 defense was incredible but it wasn’t as dominant as last season. How could it be?

Sure, the Bulldogs reloaded but Jordan Davis, Devonte Wyatt, Travon Walker, Quay Walker, Channing Tindall, Nakobe Dean, and Lewis Cine walked out the door last year. You don’t just get better when that happens. There was a drop off — albeit smaller than it would at most schools.

If UGA was going to be better and accomplish more in 2022, it had to get more from other areas of the team. The offense, all of it, stepped in.

Stetson Bennett got first-team reps in the offseason for the first time ever. Boy did those pay off. He set a UGA single-season passing record. He took home awards and finished fourth for the Heisman Trophy and attended the ceremony in New York.

He did it without AD Mitchell, his projected No. 1 weapon, for almost the entire season. He essentially missed 11 games. Ladd McConkey stepped up. So did Kenny McIntosh and Darnell Washington and Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint, and… The list kind of just goes on.

The run game got better as the year went on. The offensive line did too and allowed just nine sacks in 15 games. Georgia finished No. 2 nationally in tackles for loss surrendered per game.

It didn’t always play well. It didn’t always dominate. It did, however, always win.

Georgia can three peat

Soon the focus will turn to making more College Football history. The Bulldogs are already the first team to go back-to-back in the playoff era. They can be the first team to go for three in a row since Minnesota in 1936 but the Gophers did it while playing just eight games.

The Bulldogs can set the new standard in the modern era of College Football. I’m on record as saying I didn’t think two in a row was possible and boy was I wrong. I won’t get caught thinking that three isn’t on the table.

As I’ve said many times over the past two seasons, the Bulldogs are favored for a reason.