It is amazing what a close primetime loss can do to a program's perspective. Had Georgia done what it rarely does and beat Alabama last week, there may have been reasons to have the Dawgs ranked near the top of the AP Top 25 Poll. Instead, they fell from No. 5 all the way down to No. 12 after a three-point home defeat to the Crimson Tide. They deserve to get dogged, but not quite like this...
During an early segment on Saturday's Week 6 rendition of College GameDay, nobody on the studio set gave the Dawgs any credit when it came to a few important discussions. Whether it was the best team in the country argument, Gunner Stockton being a great quarterback, having one of the best road wins, or even getting to the SEC Championship, it was as if the Georgia program did not exist.
Truth be told, Georgia still has so much to prove. Nobody outside of Athens should be crowning them. That being said, Kirby Smart would probably prefer it to be that way. He has so much ammunition to motivate his team the rest of the way. From a national perspective, people still tend to think this is a playoff-caliber team, but as far as winning a national title is concerned, that might be a bit of a stretch.
The good news is Georgia has gotten its first loss out of the way to now play with even more urgency.
Georgia has a real opportunity to run the table as the national underdog
As far as picking apart what the college football analysts had to say about the SEC and not including Georgia, here is what is justifiable and what is not. Saying a team like Oregon or Ohio State is the best team in the nation over Georgia is totally within bounds. Having Alabama beating Georgia Between the Hedges as the best road win of the season just barely edges out Georgia knocking off Tennessee.
While Stockton has an opportunity to catch the likes of Dante Moore and Carson Beck atop the college football quarterback leaderboard, not having Georgia among the teams to play in Atlanta is the most foolish. Picking Alabama or Ole Miss over the Dawgs seems fair. Tabbing unproven teams like Oklahoma and Texas A&M over the Dawgs is the epitome of being prisoner of the moment, y'all.
In the end, Georgia can only control what it can control. It starts by beating Kentucky like a drum on Saturday afternoon and then getting ready for a tough one on the road at Auburn down on The Plains. As long as this team takes care of business, Georgia should get to 10 wins, assuming they split the pair of their two hardest remaining games vs. Ole Miss and Texas. Both of those games are at home.
For the first time in years, Georgia gets to operate as a true underdog, despite being a real contender.