ATHENS – It was about two hours before UGA football’s second clash with Alabama during the 2021 season.
I crossed paths with one of Kirby Smart’s best friends, and I dispensed with the small talk (I was in a rush as usual before a game) and said: “Hey, all Kirby has to do tonight is win with the best team of the two teams out there.”
Kirby did just that – bringing home the national title to Georgia for the first time since 1980. It was a magical night in frigid Indianapolis. A season later, Kirby’s Dawgs were clearly the best team in the nation, and stomped their way to a back-to-back national titles.
Blowout wins over Oregon, South Carolina, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Florida, State and TCU were a part of a 15-0 season. UGA won the College Football Playoff National Championship Game by 58 points.
Fifty-eight.
That was amazing. The winning continued a season later until the season’s terminal loss to Alabama in Atlanta. A season-ending blowout win over Florida State – this time 63-3 – put a point on just how good those teams were.
In three seasons Georgia won one SEC title, two national titles and blew out six top-ten teams by at least 20 points. Georgia was clearly the best team in the nation.
But we don’t know who the best team in the country is in 2025. It is probably Texas, but that’s not clear. It was clear a season ago when Ohio State was by far and away the most talented team. One of four teams – Texas, Ohio State, Georgia and (likely) Oregon – are probably the most talented teams going into 2025 (one could also make the case for Penn State and Notre Dame).
But there is no clear favorite. This is as jumbled a start to the season as we’ve seen in some time – probably since before Nick Saban’s run at Alabama really started in 2009. Because of the transition in the sport – not just with NIL and the transfer portal, but in coaching – we’ve seen three seasons with three different national champions.
That’s not happened a lot lately because of the amount of titles Alabama, Clemson and Georgia have won since 2009. Only Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, Ohio State’s Ryan Day and Kirby return to the coaching ranks with national title trophies to speak of – this isn’t like 2017 when it looked like we might have a crop of coaches that could challenge to win it all each season.
Jim Harbaugh is gone. Jimbo Fisher fizzled. Dan Mullen flopped out. And Lilcon Riley has crashed and burned.
And yet Kirby and Dabo remain. Dabo’s program has taken a noticeable dip lately. The narrative about the Tigers would be noticeably different coming into 2025 without a hat tip to Syracuse and Fran Brown stunning Miami hours after Dabo lost to Shane Beamer for the second time in three years.
Kirby’s Dawgs won the SEC – stopping Texas twice in the process – but lost to a not-great Notre Dame team in the Sugar Bowl… the season fizzled more than it sizzled last fall.
So can Kirby take what he has and go win it all? This season should be a good test of that. For a long time now, someone has been the “clear” favorite to win it all – usually Alabama. But Bama has slipped. The Bear has left T Town again.
There’s much we don’t know – not just about the Dawgs, but seemingly about all of the teams playing these days. August will be here before you know it, and December will be as well. By then we will see if Kirby is capable of winning it all without having the best team.
Then again, he might just have the best team, and we don’t know it yet. That’s possible, but one way or the other Kirby is going to have to make more with less than he’s had in the past. That’s clear.
