Kirby smart nick saban georgia football

LOS ANGELES — Kirby Smart knows Alabama hasn’t done it. Last season’s national championship team couldn’t accomplish it either.

Georgia capped off an unbeaten season in the most brutally dominant way. It steamrolled TCU on the way to a 65-7 win. It’s the most lopsided bowl game victory of all-time.

It gave Georgia and Smart their 15-0 season in program history

“Sometimes it takes a loss to galvanize, put your team in a spot to win. It did that last year,” Smart said. “And it didn’t take that. I always tell guys, do you have to take a loss to learn? Why? Like, it doesn’t take that to learn that.

“And this team is special because they didn’t have a flaw.”

That’s not to say that Georgia was always perfect this season. It needed two fourth-quarter comebacks to beat Missouri and Ohio State. There were slogs against Kent State and Kentucky.

But when this team needed to be at this best, it so often was. Georgia was 7-0 against teams ranked in the Top 25 this season. Six of those wins came by double digits.

While Monday’s game was fait accompli just before the end of the second quarter, it wasn’t always obvious Georgia would win the national championship this year.

Alabama and Ohio State were the runaway favorites to win the national championship in the preseason. Much of that changed after Georgia whomped Oregon 49-3 in Week 1.

But this Georgia team never forgot those slights and carried them all the way to the finish line.

“Just coming into the season with all the doubters we had, we wanted to prove everybody wrong,” senior safety Chris Smith said. “We knew what we had what it took. We just had to show it. It’s such a special group.”

Smart noted in his postgame press conference that the 2021 team might be more talented than this one. That the comparisons between the two will be inevitable.

But this group has some accolades the 2021 team does not. In addition to the unblemished record, it won the SEC championship.

Georgia didn’t get the Alabama pelt on the wall this season, but the Bulldogs also beat Ohio State, Tennessee and LSU. The Volunteers came into Athens ranked No. 1 in the country and had a chance to take a real claim at winning the SEC East.

“We had a meeting and we all said we wanted to do something different from last year and we did.,” Brock Bowers said. “We won the SEC championship. I’m so proud of those guys. It’s just no better than tonight.”

Smart said this time had a look in its eyes all season, one that let him know this team wasn’t going to be beaten.

Georgia joins the 2019 LSU team and the 2018 Clemson team as the only teams to go 15-0 in the College Football Playoff era. Smart was the defensive coordinator on the 2009 Alabama team that went unbeaten, but the Crimson Tide went 14-0 that season.

The Georgia coach acknowledged this season is special multiple times. But there’s also a sense that things are just getting started. The foundation at Georgia is very strong, as the Bulldogs became the first back-to-back champion in the College Football Playoff era.

Georgia may very well just be getting started in becoming the new college football dynasty. A three-peat is now on the table.

And that wouldn’t be possible without the accomplishments reached by the 2022 Georgia football team.

“This program is about business. It’s about winning,” Kenny McIntosh said. “We want to develop young boys into men. It’s what we do on and off the field here at Georgia. Go Dawgs.”

Kirby Smart speaks on special Georgia football title

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