A sobering stat from Bill’s SEC East preview ($$):
Of the past 10 national champions that weren’t coached by Saban, only half have finished in the AP top five the following year. Three finished unranked (all SEC teams), and the teams’ cumulative win percentage fell from 0.958 (13.7 wins per year) to 0.788 (10.4).
That isn’t to say Georgia’s 2022 season is marked for disappointment.
Smart spent 11 seasons as a Saban assistant and is as close to Saban 2.0 as college football has seen. If that remains true, then Georgia will reload defensively, play at a top-three level and plow through the SEC East once again.
What it does mean is that we’re about to find out if Kirby is as good a head coach as we think he is.
Get The Picture 
Anybody paying attention at all knows just how steep Kirby’s learning curve has been. He knows rat poison when he smells it and is sweeping that shit out!!!
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Maybe CKS is better at developing national trophies than UGA football student athletes…GO DAWGS!
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The two aren’t mutually exclusive, ya’ know?!
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What is a legitimate expectation for this year? My expectation is what is has always been … win the East and take your chances in a de facto quarterfinal in Atlanta. We just happened to get to play in a double elimination tournament last year. You can’t assume that’s going to be the case every year.
I don’t see anyone who can beat us without a lot of help from us in the regular season.
If this team leaves it all out there on the floor of MBS in December and loses, I can accept that.
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There are now two 1,000 lb gorillas in the SEC room. Each year, one of them is going to lose the fight. There are usually a couple other gorillas out there in the rest of CFB each year.
Stay a 1,000 lb gorilla, win about half the gorilla fights and almost all the rest, and never look like garbage. That’s the expectation.
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Does feel like we are at that point. Depth is a huge factor in this league and Georgia has more than most. A lot more than most in the East.
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Unlike Bama…nobody threatened us in the regular season. UF, LSU and Auburn played them to the wire, and Auburn had them beat till the end. All three ended up with losing records. We, on the other hand, mopped the floor with everybody we played. Only Clemson came close to beating us, and we held them to 3 points and strapped 7 sacks on em. We were a dominant team…dominant teams beat who they are supposed too.
This year, I might be in the minority, but I can actually see this D being better. Beal is the most underrated player on the team besides Bennett and Smith on the other side with Carter in the middle,and 4 and 5 star talent all around them, the front seven will be solid. But it’s all of those talented secondary players the Smart-bomb has recruited along with Ringo and Smith that is gonna make our DBs a special groiup.
Write this down…we will dominant the regular season, again. Bama?…not sure, they probably will, but the were supposed to last year…and didn’t.
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I expect this team to be significantly worse than last year but still win 11 or all 12 games in the regular season, after that is anyone’s guess. We got 15 guys drafted, we’re not just going to be as good as last years historically good team but we’re favored by double digits in all of our games. I expect to see something like 2019 or 2020.
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Do you mean statistically worse on defense? What’s your definition of “significantly”? If that’s a TD per game, is that going to impact the outcome of the season?
I’ve said that I think we’ll allow more points. I also think we’ll score at least as much as we did in 2021. That’s why it’s going to be tough for someone to beat us in the regular season.
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Yeah if I had to put a number on it, I think the defense gives up an additional touchdown a game, offense is the same maybe slightly better. It’s significant in that last year as a comp is really hard to beat but even with the “regression” on defense the team is still good enough to beat everyone on the schedule, probably by 2 tds.
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What an a awesome ‘problem’ to have and solve, the polar opposite of the problem other programs currently have to solve in re-building from a still smoldering dumpster fire,
Florida
I’m just soaking in these glorious times. They won’t last forever.
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WTF not??????????????
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His first 5 years Kirby was learning, playing catch-up. Last year he had a plan that worked until it didn’t. Kirby adjusted and overcame. I would think that Saban is busy adjusting to Kirby’s plan as well.
I think Kirby’s adjustments will crush Bama and hasten Saban’s retirement. Agh! Then we’ll have to listen to more of the lamentations of the bitches in Tuscaloosa. It’s already like a colic baby.
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Disagree.
He showed up in Athens with the blueprint. He was ready to go. There wasn’t a lot of “learning” to be had, though there was upgrading needed in a talent (both Roster and Coaches) that had to happen.
As for last year, it wasn’t that his plan “worked until it didnt”… it’s that he changed the plan in Atlanta, and the change didn’t work. But it did work in that Bama wasn’t ready for it in the Natty.
Bama had multiple tries inside the 20 before Williams left the game… and came up with 0 touchdowns – because the D did what it had done all year.
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Kirby threw the SECCG!
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Kirby took one for the SEC and his old coach. A two loss Alabama wasn’t get to the big dance.
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Let’s go, BD!
He may have had a blueprint going in…a good one at that. It doesn’t mean he didn’t have some learning to do, especially in the area of offensive in-game adjustments.
You’re right- whatever changes he made for ATL didn’t work. he made different changes for Indy, i.e., scheme, personnel, and play calling, and it worked!
He has indeed come a long way!
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Aw bullshit, Ben. Kirby had a helluva lot of learning and growing to do before he became the HC he is now. He’ll learn even more in the next 6 years about being the boss. All the knowledge and the blueprint he brought with him still had to be implemented in his style. It takes a leader a few years to develop a style. Agree about the talent upgrade.
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Small sample sizes are small
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That’s what SHE said!!!!!
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Those other national champions the last ten years?
2013 FSU, who went undefeated the following season until their loss to Oregon in the national title game.
2014 Ohio State, who then went 12-1 with a 3-point loss to Michigan State.
2016 Clemson, who then lost one regular season game and fell to Alabama in the playoff.
2018 Clemson, who then went undefeated until their loss in the championship game.
2019 LSU, who then fell off a cliff and represent pretty much all of the actual negative numbers.
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Sorry, that first FSU loss was in the semifinal.
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I tell you one player that is going to be fired up, SB4. Not a single SEC talking head had him in their top5 of SEC QB’s.
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