Kirby Smart has spent the last 16 years coaching college football’s top two powerhouses of that era, so he already knew the question the morning after his Georgia Bulldogs won their second straight college football playoff championship game.
“I really don’t want to talk about three,” Smart said Tuesday in a Los Angeles hotel ballroom just before the Bulldogs flew home.
Smart might not want to discuss it, but he couldn’t deny that he’s already considering Georgia’s chance to do something unprecedented in college football’s last eight-plus decades after extinguishing TCU 65-7 in the most one-sided postseason college football game in history.
The Bulldogs have more national championships (2) than losses (1) in the last two seasons, establishing the new gold standard in college football after this 15-0 season.
They will have a unique opportunity next year to play a three-peat, which was never done in the 1936 AP polling era.
“As I think about the next one, I think it’s going to be a lot harder,” Smart said. “And I do think that we have to reinvent ourselves next year because you can’t just stay like that. We’ve got a lot of guys coming back and it’s easy to feel comfortable. And comfortable doesn’t win.”
In the long history of the AP Top 25, No team has ever won three consecutive national championships by poll voters. Twelve teams, including Georgia this season, have been ranked #1 in the last Top 25 in consecutive seasons since the poll became an annual endeavor in 1936. A number of teams – notably Minnesota in the 1930s and Army in the 1940s – claimed three goals as awarded by other polls.
No team has ever won three consecutive titles in the AP Poll, Coaches’ Poll, Bowl Championship Series, or College Football Playoffs. This puts Georgia right on the cusp of history – with a good chance of making it.
“I mean, this place is special,” said Javon Bullard, the defenseman who will return in 2023 after making two interceptions and recovering a fumble against TCU. “Growing up as a kid in the state of Georgia and playing for the University of Georgia is special. So the word dynasty is something we build together. And that was built before us, and it will be built after us.”
Sure, the Dawgs’ personnel losses will be significant: The 25-year-old quarterback’s remarkable career Stetson Bennett is finally over, while standout defensive tackle Jalen Carter declared for the NFL draft immediately after the game. Other expected losses include defensemen Kelee Ringo and Christopher Smith, hulking tight end Darnell Washington, linebacker Robert Beal and part of the offensive line.
But in every year of Smart’s tenure at his alma mater, waves of talent have hit Georgia. The Dawgs have another recruiting class alongside several elite players in the transfer portal, notably leading receivers in Mississippi State (Rara Thomas) and Missouri (Dominic Lovett).
Georgia also has a remarkably comfortable schedule in 2023, with a late-season trip to Tennessee looming as likely the biggest obstacle to another undefeated regular season and the trip to the SEC title game.
Vegas agrees: The Bulldogs are the 3-to-1 favorite for Three-Torat, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
All in all, it will take Georgia years to collect Nick Saban’s Alabama-era accolades. The Bulldogs have won two national titles and two SEC championships under Smart; Six of Saban’s seven national titles and eight conference titles have come with the Crimson Tide.
But Georgia is only the fourth team since 1980 to win back-to-back national titles and reach this abyss of history.
Also, the last team to come that close to a three-peat was Alabama, who won national titles in 2011 and 2012. The Tide started 2013 at No. 1 and won their first 11 games, but Auburn held Alabama out of the SEC championship game and the final BCS title game with the legendary kick six – Chris Davis’ 109-yard return of a missed field goal a touchdown on the last play of the game.
Southern California achieved its third straight national title in minutes in 2005 after going undefeated until the BCS title game at the Rose Bowl. The Trojans’ bid ended in heartbreaking fashion with Texas, led by Vince Young, 41-38 in one of the sport’s biggest games.
College football is always changing, and Georgia was reminded again Tuesday when beloved quarterback Stetson Bennett chose not to show up for the traditional press conference the morning after.
bennett, who hopes for an NFL career that would be even more unlikely than his college promotion, said on the field after the game that his commitments to Georgia ended after the final whistle.
“I know he has GOAT status forever in Athens, Georgia,” Smart said.
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