Georgia football and Kirby Smart must move forward, not back, in 2019
Kirby Smart has in many ways exceeded expectations in his first three seasons as the Georgia football guru, but year four needs to see a big step forward.
Georgia football fans were thrilled when Kirby Smart was hired to take over a program which had been mired in backslides and shattered dreams for nearly ten seasons. The former Alabama defensive coordinator who helped Nick Saban win four national championships was finally coming home to add to the trophy case at Butts-Mehre.
By the end of his second year, head coach Kirby Smart and the Georgia football team were playing for a national championship against none other than Smart’s former employer, Alabama.
They lost a heartbreaker in overtime.
In year three, Georgia and Kirby Smart once again made an impression on the national scene and once again faced Alabama, this time in the SEC Championship Game.
They lost a heartbreaker.
Year four now has two mandates for the Georgia Bulldogs …
Beat Alabama (should that opportunity arise) and move forward … not back.
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Easier said than done, especially in the SEC.
Based on the past two seasons, it would seem the only way for Georgia to move forward would be to win a national championship. Obviously, that’s the endgame for any top program entering the season. For Georgia, get out of the SEC Championship game unscathed and get into the playoff.
Once in that four-team showdown, anything can happen. A second College Football Playoff berth in four years would be enough to keep the wolves demanding “championship, now!” at bay.
Standing in Kirby Smart’s way? While there’s no LSU or Alabama in the regular season, there’s enough on this schedule to have some concern for a Georgia team who was exploited defensively against Texas in the Sugar Bowl. A road schedule littered with landmines including Tennessee, Auburn, and Georgia Tech, and then some unpredictable opponents visiting Sanford Stadium including the likes of Notre Dame, Kentucky and Texas A&M.
The non-conference schedule? Other than Notre Dame, the Bulldogs need to do what they failed to do so frequently under Mark Richt, and that’s to dispatch of opponents Murray State and Arkansas State in such a way as to be accused of running up the score and prompting tweets for the mercy rule.
Anything less than the vicious Dothraki-like slaughter of second-tier opponents and finishing four full quarters of football against every quality opponent — all leading to a playoff berth — can and should be deemed as a step back and a failed season for this team.
The Georgia football program can’t afford to take a step back now. If that happens, the inevitable connecting of the Mark Richt-Kirby Smart dots will litter the Bulldog Nation and undermine the confidence which has been building since 2016.
Ever forward, Dawgs. Ever forward.