Kirby Smart hanging 40 points on an SEC defense? I never thought I’d see the day.
When you think of those vintage, Kirby Smart-led Georgia Bulldog teams, what’s one thing you think of?
Maybe it’s the grind-you-out, lock-you-down defenses that helped deliver back-to-back national championships to Athens.
One thing is for sure, these Dawgs, who won a 43-35 shootout against visiting Ole Miss on Saturday in Athens, are a far cry from the ones who took the field less than half a decade ago.
And, quite frankly, that doesn’t matter one bit, because the current iteration of the Georgia Bulldogs has just as much bite, albeit with a bit of a different look.
Kirby Smart cut his teeth as an elite defensive coordinator.
It’s what got him the job as the head coach at Georgia, and it’s what won him two national championships in 2021 and 2022.
But this season, the Georgia Bulldogs look more akin to the 2019 LSU Tigers than they do any defensive-minded unit.
Georgia has 40 points against multiple SEC opponents ranked in the top-15, and they needed every one of those points to get past both Tennessee and now Ole Miss in the process.
I wrote earlier about how playing defense in the first half of this contest looked optional at best, but I do have to give Georgia credit where it is due. When they needed to, they put the clamps on this high-powered Ole Miss Rebels’ attack, spoiling Lane Kiffin’s perfect season.
A result like this should frighten the rest of the SEC.
Georgia can win a game with offense OR defense now, and the Bulldogs are right back in the thick of both the SEC and national championship hunt.
Of course, the Dawgs will move up in the AP Poll, which will trigger a lot of people, but they have two very quality wins over the aforementioned Vols and Rebels, and they look like one of the best teams in the country at this moment.
As much as we all may hate to admit it, the Georgia Bulldogs are back like they never left.
Read the full article here
