Georgia football: Rivalry with the Vols is still very much alive

Despite Georgia football having a four-game winning streak over Tennessee, this rivalry is still relevant and closer than people realize.

The Dawgs lead the overall series 25-23-2 — it’s tight, and one of the big reasons Georgia has the series lead is head coach Kirby Smart and the last four years.

Georgia is 12-12-1 in Knoxville and 13-11-1 in Athens. The Dawgs have dominated the last 11 games 9-2, but those nine straight losses from 1989 to1999 helped the Vols take control of the series.

With the Dawgs having so much success the last 10 years, some fans don’t really consider this meeting much of a rivalry anymore because it has been so lopsided. However, Tennessee is still one of Georgia’s biggest rivals.

Of those 10 years, eight or fewer points decided four of those games, so these matchups are always tight and close. Well, they were when Mark Richt was the head coach.

Now that Smart is in town, the Dawgs lost by three in 2016, and since then, it’s been pretty lopsided as the Dawgs average 41.5 points and the Vols average11.75.

Smart talked about this rivalry to the media in his Monday press conference and how it’s still a challenging game for the Dawgs. They cannot just overlook Tennessee because if they do, the Vols can sneak up on them and possibly upset Georgia. They’ve done it in the past, so Georgia must come into this one laser-focused.

Tennessee and Georgia both have a ton of rivals — for the Dawgs, it’s Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Florida, Auburn, South Carolina, and for the Vols, it’s Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Alabama and Vanderbilt.

"“Tennessee has all kinds of rivals and we have all kinds of rivals — it’s the unique part of being in the SEC, and Tennessee-Georgia is one of those,” Smart said in his Monday press conference. “There are times that it’s been lopsided. I know when I played here, it was lopsided their way because we could never beat them and they’ve had ups and downs, but I do know this — Josh is doing a really good job. He’s done a tremendous job of recruiting and getting the players that are there to buy in. And they bought in. They’re playing really hard, really physical. There’s a lot of confidence. So we need to play a really good game.”"

In the SEC, these rivalries are significant, and something fans and teams take seriously. It doesn’t matter that Georgia has won four in a row, Tennessee has confidence, and if it’s the right day, they could shock the Dawgs.

So Georgia needs to treat this game like they are both 9-0 on the season, and this is for SEC East bragging rights. Smart will have his guys humble because he knows that is how you keep a team playing well.

Is it nice that Georiga is No.1 in the country? Yes, but right now, it’s all about Tennessee and focusing on increasing that series lead and making it 10-2 through the last 12 years.

Georgia has something special going on this season, and they don’t need any hiccups with the post-season so close. In 2017, the Dawgs fell to Auburn in the final SEC matchup of the regular season, and it humbled Georgia a bit. They still went on to win an SEC title, but this year needs to be different from every other “it’s our year” times.

Hopefully, this squad knows they cannot overlook anyone regardless of ranking and handle it like the 10th mini-national title game in a row.

This Georgia team seems to know how important every game is, so a slip-up isn’t on their mind. Instead, it’ll hopefully be another beat down where the Dawgs beat another opponent by 17 plus points and knock Tennessee down a few notches.