THOMBS: Georgia makes it through gauntlet of games, gets ready for another
Coming into the season, Georgia fans knew the gauntlet that their Bulldogs would play coming out of the bye. At the time, Florida was a fringe top-25 team and quickly got in with a win over Utah in its opener, Tennessee and Kentucky were ranked and eventually shot into the top 10 while Mike Leach and Mississippi State’s air raid offense was a challenge completely different from anything Georgia would see on a regular basis. Individually each game would pose some sort of problem, but collectively, it was a whole different level of difficult. Add in the fact that three of the four games were away from Sanford Stadium and it wasn’t crazy to believe that the young group of Bulldogs would come out of the stretch with a loss.
That gauntlet is now a thing of the past. Georgia went 4-0, winning each game by double-digits. At no point in any of the four games was there every really a moment when it felt like the Bulldogs might lose. After Saturday’s win over Kentucky to close that stretch out, Kirby Smart acknowledged what his team had just gotten through.
“I feel like everybody across the league — including us — are at a point where we just had four games in a row, three on the road that were really tough and really physically. We knew this gauntlet was coming, and our guys put their heads down and worked really hard,” Smart said. “Regardless who we’ve faced, we stood up to the test that we’ve been asked to and am proud of what they’ve done. But we’re not where we need to be. We’ve got to improve on both sides of the ball.”
“I mean, the leaders on this team stand up — I asked them before we left to come here in the team meeting, ‘What makes you different than last year’s team?’ And they said, ‘Our response to adversity.’ I put 15, 16, 17 seniors in front of the room and said, ‘Each one of you, tell me what this game means to you.’ You could see what they’re playing for. They’re playing for a chance to be the winningest team, one of the first teams to ever do the two undefeated [regular seasons], the chance to dominate on the road, the chance to win on a four-game stretch that I don’t know that I’ve seen a four-game stretch quite like that one in our league. They did it — like, they owned it and I’m proud of them.”
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Of course the season’s not over, and the games get harder from here. Georgia closes out with in-state rival Georgia Tech this week, but after that it’s on to the postseason. The Bulldogs haven’t beaten LSU under the direction of Kirby Smart and are 1-3 against the Tigers in an SEC Championship setting. That’s their opponent for this year’s SEC Championship Game – a hurdle in its own right that’s been difficult for Georgia to overcome, winning one in 2017 with losses in 2018, 2019 and 2021 appearances. Then, should Georgia be selected for the College Football Playoff as expected, it’s on to chasing something that hasn’t been done in the Playoff era – a repeat National Championship.
Smart takes things one day at a time. He’s not focused on what’s to come for Georgia. Instead, he likes to acknowledge what’s been done, just as he did Saturday for Georgia’s gauntlet of games out of the bye. And if the head coach is going to give praise, it’s probably worth some recognition from Georgia fans too. Don’t take it for granted. Enjoy the journey and get ready for another gauntlet because it’s coming, and if Georgia makes it through this one like it did the last one, there will be a lot of happy fans in red and black.
