Decade of the Dawg?

[BrentVU]

Georgia has now done something most people considered unlikely-- run the gauntlet undefeated and repeated as national champions. (Which has their rabid fans wondering: are the 2020s the Decade of the Dawg? With plenty of good years seemingly ahead of Kirby Smart, can the Bulldogs establish a dynasty?)

Georgia handled the Horned Frogs like a bulldog with a chew toy. Why, Vanderbilt's margin of loss to Georgia was slightly less than the Big XII champions'-- what does that say? How in the world did TCU manage to beat the Big Ten champions in the semis, and completely lose it in the finals? (Easy: Michigan's QB threw two pick-6s vs. TCU; Georgia made no such mistakes. Its only real mistake of the night was a secondary bust that led to TCU's early 7 points.) The degree to which Georgia dominated both lines of scrimmage was almost unfair. And the play-calling by OC Todd Monken was also on another level.

Has Kirby Smart replaced Nick Saban as the king of the hill? Did last year's national championship game mark a changing of the guard? Georgia is definitely recruiting at an elite level, but it is also developing and coaching up players... its QB, don't forget, was not a 5-star recruit, but a former walk-on. Georgia has a ridiculously easy regular-season schedule in 2023. But I wouldn't write off Nick Saban just yet... the Tide has got to be hungrier than ever after two losses by a total of four points kept them out of this year's CFP. Ohio State was just a badly missed field goal away from knocking off the Dawgs. And a number of other programs are "on the rise."

So, Greg Sankey and the SEC are justifiably happy today... that makes four straight national championships for the "It just means more" league, and six of the last eight.

And one more thing before we put 2022 to bed: this makes four out of the last six years that Vanderbilt has had a regular-season loss to the eventual national champion. (I could add up the cumulative score of those four losses, but I don't feel like doing that today.)

[VU1970]

To my eyes, Ohio State was the better team when they played Georgia.

[Ndorefin]

Too bad Bama didnt get a crack at UGa. There will always be a slight question when you dont play the King!

[Johnmn555]

They left Uga back in Athens. I would have thought that would have jinxed them. Guess it will be their decade. I dunno. Back in the 80s we were entering the Japanese Century.

[FayetteDore]

I'm not counting Saban out until I see it happen. As Brent said, Bama's two losses were by a total of 4 points. He'll come back even more determined next year. Georgia is good but has benefitted by other SEC East powers, notably Florida and, until this year, Tennessee, being down. West rival Auburn has also been down. It would have been great to see Georgia and Bama in the SEC-CG.

Georgia gets credit for playing Oregon in 2022, but its 2023 schedule IS ridiculous: UT Martin, Ball State, UAB in Athens, and Ga. Tech in Atlanta is a virtual home game. As The Athletic reported this morning, the only question mark on the Dogs' schedule this fall is Tennessee at Knoxville; even then Georgia will likely be favored.

Congrats to them for the back-to-back NCs, but IMO you're right to place the question mark at the end of the subject line.

[BrentVU]

Georgia's win might also be considered a win for the Clark Lea way of doing things...

Kirby Smart lost a lot of players from his championship team of 2021, but didn't replace a single player with a transfer from the portal. His preference is to bring in younger players for the long haul, develop them, and inculcate them with the Georgia culture.

Contrast that with Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss, which brought in more players from the portal than any other SEC school. Ole Miss started strong but finished with five losses in its last six games, including a bowl loss.

[coachinwaiting]

Georgia was a dominating team this year and last, but the biggest stage of all had all the appearances of an old fashioned heavyweight boxing match between the champ and the bum of the month. It certainly made the Dawgs look like the greatest of all time, but it makes me wonder how many other SEC teams could have soundly throttled TCU as well.

If TCU and Vanderbilt traded schedules in 2022, I think Vanderbilt would have the easier time of replicating its 5-7 result as opposed to TCU replicating its record. Against the common opponent of UGA, Vanderbilt faired as well. Had TCU also faced Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Florida, Wake Forest, et al., I don't think anyone would wager a dime on them running that table to a championship game.

My point is that while UGA has achieved a place at the top of the CFB mountain, it shouldn't be predicated upon the performance against TCU. TCU didn't belong in that game, it was there by happenstance. A confluence of circumstances that may never come together again brought about the matchup and UGA was the beneficiary of it. The same can be said of the SECCG against LSU. It isn't the first time that the title game had 2 teams of such unequal abilities, but it has to be acknowledged. The stars aligned for UGA this season, but that isn't to say they couldn't have won the championship in any event. It just means that it may be premature for the rest of college football to throw in the towel quite so soon.