With Georgia falling at home for the first time in six years, people are starting to lose their minds about their beloved college football team up in Athens. What was once a total juggernaut no longer appears to be that. After losing a combined two games over three seasons from 2021 to 2023, both to Alabama in Atlanta, Georgia has lost a combined four games dating back to the start of last year.
In his latest mailbag article for The Athletic, Stewart Mandel tried to squash any concerns one particular Georgia fan had about his team. While he did say that Georgia is still a good team, and one that will probably make the playoff, should the Dawgs split their two toughest games the rest of the way between Ole Miss and Texas, both at home by the way, he does not think they are winning it all.
Mandel's colleague Seth Emerson, who covers this team for a living, wrote the following after last Saturday's tough loss at home to, you guessed it, Alabama... "The reality about this Georgia football program, if it was not hammered home already, should be by now: It is not as good as it once was. And it probably never will be as good as the halcyon days of 2021-22." Does he have a point in this?
Let's unpack if now is the time to be concerned about Georgia or if it is going through growing pains.
The first Kirby Smart Georgia crest has peaked, could there be another?
From an unbiased perspective, Mandel hit the nail on the head. It is not a lack of recruiting or Kirby Smart losing his fastball, nor it is being late to the NIL game. Georgia's relative decline has everything to do with coaching attrition. After losing Dan Lanning to Oregon in 2022 and Todd Monken to the Baltimore Ravens in 2023, Smart has not effectively replaced either of his two rockstar coordinators.
With Mike Bobo being a known commodity from his lengthy coaching career, he was obviously going to be a downgrade at offensive coordinator. While he can be fine at times, he can be equally as frustrating. There are children growing up in Northeast Georgia whose first words will be "Fire Mike Bobo!" It does not help the fact that he and Smart were teammates at Georgia and remain very close.
Although Bobo has been the bane of many Dawg fans' existence for far too many Saturdays than they could ever care to remember, at least his son in center Drew Bobo is an excellent player. So he has that going for him at least... Where it has been especially mind-bogging is how defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann still looks like he needs his hand held on the sidelines a decade into this at Georgia.
Schumann left his alma mater of Alabama to follow Smart to Athens in 2016, where he has been ever since. It had been a slow and steady climb for Schumann to get his feet under him. He was a decent position coach, but he is doing the team more harm than good as the defensive coordinator. Smart cannot delegate responsibilities to him because he must do his job for him to bail him out in the end.
Overall, Georgia will still remain a national power for as long as Smart wants the Bulldogs to be one. He is young enough in his coaching career to where a second, or potentially even a very Belichickian third, crest could manifest in Athens. Georgia recruits and develops well enough to win a few more titles before Smart hangs up the visor. However, the likelihood of No. 3 coming this season feels slim.
Ultimately, the only way Georgia is going to get back to what it was when Stetson Bennett IV was their all-world quarterback is to get this team two better coordinators. Smart needs to remain an effective CEO-type for this to work. He is spending too much time fixing messes Schumann makes on defense to realize his best friend Bobo is closer to Bozo the Clown than being a top-tier offensive coordinator.
Georgia is still likely a playoff team, but it lacks the coaching prowess to win three or four games.