Georgia football: One week away from Humility

Georgia football subjugated Tennessee yesterday in a 41-0 victory on the road.

I keep hearing the same things about this Georgia football team and their last two victories over Mississippi State. These were the teams Georgia wasn’t supposed to dominate. Never mind the superior talent, ranking and experience. The Bulldogs just don’t blow out these teams.

We’ve all been groomed to believe that over the last 10 years. Games like the 2012 meeting with Tennessee or the 2014 game against Florida has led Georgia fans to never expect the Bulldog’s absolute best.

Last week, Georgia was 3-0 with a big win over Notre Dame. No. 17 Mississippi State was coming to town led by another “Dan Mullen guy” at quarterback and coming off a slaughter of LSU. Because of our history, we weren’t shocked at all when many in the media favored Mississippi State over our Bulldogs.

What did shock us was the 31-3 beat down. There was never any stress from the opening kickoff to the final buzzer. Georgia just took care of business and imposed their wills for 60 minutes.

This past week, the Bulldogs were 4-0 and heading into Knoxville to play a Tennessee team that beat Georgia in 2015 and 2016. The Volunteers were also playing for their coaches future. So based on history, I will excuse you for thinking this is the game that Tennessee circles the wagons to pull off a miracle upset.

More from Dawn of the Dawg

• Georgia Football: Top 5 Nick Chubb Moments at Georgia
• Georgia Football: Know the enemy UAB Blazers
• Nick Chubb is America’s running back, and he will return
• Georgia Football: Should laundry list of injuries be a cause to panic?
• Georgia Football: Report cards for Week 3 game against South Carolina

But that’s not at all what happened. Just like the week before, Georgia took care of business and imposed their wills for another 60 minutes.

Now Georgia is 6-0 and looking forward to a trip to Nashville to play the Vanderbilt Commodores, a team that has defeated the Bulldogs twice since 2013. However, Alabama slaughtered them two weeks ago and lost to Florida by two scores on Saturday. Again though, recent history points to this being the letdown game for Georgia.

But at some point we have to shake those thoughts. This isn’t the Georgia team we’ve grown accustomed to. They are very different, this coaching staff is very different and the head coach himself is also very different.

And something head coach Kirby Smart said in the post game interview on Saturday shows just how different the situation is on Athens. It also shows why we don’t have to wait for that embarrassing or grounding loss anymore.

He said humility is always one week away. In that quote we see Smart’s intentions on keeping the team focused on the primary of goal of winning the next game. Not focusing on ultimate goals, or what the media and fans are saying.

Just focus on Vanderbilt. And next Sunday they’ll start focusing on Missouri, and Florida after that. Don’t do the silly things from Monday-to-Friday that cause the lapses that lead to the letdowns. No distractions, no getting a big-head. Just take care of business

It’s refreshing not just for Georgia fans, but for everyone else in the SEC who’s waited on a team to step up and knock Alabama off their pedestal. Because that’s the same attitude Nick Saban has. It’s why he’s clutched onto SEC titles and the no. 1 ranking in the polls with an iron fist for the better part of eight years now.

The SEC may have been full of other great coaches and their may still be good coaches in the league now. None have displayed as much of an obsession with staying focused on the next game the way Saban does. Until now.

Not Les Miles, Steve Spurrier, Will Muschamp, Hugh Freeze, Dan Mullen or Mark Richt. All coaches that I think were and are capable of leading their team to a national title. Yes, I still think Richt could have eventually led us to the National Championship we so desperately crave.

But admittedly, I do not think Richt was the man to knock Saban and Alabama off of the top of college football for long. I could have seen us winning a national title once every six or seven years with Richt. But I could not picture him as a dynasty builder.

Smart however, is not like that. When I watch and listen to his interviews post-game, mid-week or pregame, I hear a coach who is not only fully focused on the game at hand, but is also certain that he instilled that same focus into his team.

And then I watch the team play. I watch Lorenzo Carter and Tyrique McGhee making huge plays defensively to open back-to-back games.

Roquan Smith made 11 tackles in a game where nine opposing possessions only lasted three plays or less. The offense accumulated 294 rushing yards and only passed when they needed to. And when they needed to, the passing game worked. And the special teams unit was almost flawless.

Georgia isn’t winning these games on Saturday’s with big plays and a few critical stops. They’re winning games Monday through Friday by being a team who is just practicing better. They watch and study film better. Georgia game-plans and works-out better.

That’s why the Bulldogs turn the momentum in their favor early and never lose it. It’s why Mississippi State and Tennessee never had an ounce of hope throughout either game.

Next: It's fun to be a Bulldog again

What will it take for fans to finally buy in? When will the entirety of the Bulldog Nation stop expecting the worst and realize that the worst just isn’t going to come? And realize that if the worst comes, it won’t be back for a long while?

Another crushing win over Vanderbilt may win a few over. Beating Florida will probably make the most progress in that regard. Auburn wouldn’t leave any doubt. I just know that at this rate, the day will come when we can all look at Georgia football and know that we can always expect the best.