If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. Not since falling in Atlanta to the Alabama Crimson Tide nearly two years ago have Kirby Smart's Georgia Bulldogs lost a game. Even if they were to fall at some point this season, this is the preeminent power in the sport right now. Georgia has won the last two College Football Playoffs and have gotten off to a 9-0 (6-0) start this season as well.
While appearing on Friday's episode of The Pat McAfee Show live from Athens, Smart said that even though the College Football Playoff Selection Committee has had the Dawgs at No. 2 in their first two rankings of the season, that is not a primary source of motivation for his program. He said to McAfee and the boys that the Dawgs have been doubted all year long, especially after Brock Bowers got hurt.
Smart may have said that he has not had to use the rankings as motivation, but others might have...
"I haven't had to use (the College Football Playoff rankings). We've had other motivation. I mean we've had plenty of people doubting us each game we go into. We've had a star player that's been out for awhile in Brock (Bowers). So it's like everybody's doubting us and giving us motivation through that."
What I love about Smart's comments on Pat McAfee is Georgia just wants to make the four-team field.
"The playoff rankings literally have not come across my desk. I don't care, I really don't think our team cares. They just want to get in the four. That's the goal, right? So it's not about where you put us or what you say about us. We've got to go out and do it on the field."
Even if the Dawgs don't win it all this season, Smart's comments signify that they are in rarified air.
Kirby Smart says his Georgia program is motivated by something bigger
I have to admit this. As a Georgia fan and alum of the University of Georgia, I do feel that the Selection Committee is slighting the Dawgs considerably in the first two rankings. Ohio State may have two high-quality wins to Georgia's one, but Notre Dame has three losses and the Penn State win could get worse if the Nittany Lions were to fall to the Michigan Wolverines or someone in the final three weeks.
Georgia's best win is over Missouri, but the Dawgs have Ole Miss up next, Tennessee after that and Georgia Tech in Atlanta for some Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. Since Mizzou and Tennessee play each other before toe meets leather in Athens, one of those SEC East teams will have three conference losses on the year. I understand what the Selection Committee is trying to do, as this is a TV product.
What Smart and the rest of his team seems to understand is that you just need to make the four-team field. It does not really matter after that. In the current iteration of the College Football Playoff, a No. 1, a No. 2, a No. 3 and a No. 4 seed have all won national titles. Georgia won its first title in 41 years as the No. 3 seed in 2021 and repeated as the No. 1 seed a year ago. They are playing a different game.
Having an extra motivated Georgia team is bad for pretty much any team they have to go up against.
