Georgia football is the best of the best when it comes to football in the SEC. That statement has been true for the better part of four years now considering Georgia won back-to-back national championship less than two years ago.
But rival fanbases are hesitant to crown Georgia as the best in the SEC (or country) simply beause it isn't fun giving that title to another school. Thankfully for Georgia however, an SEC coach indirectly gave them this title.
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin was interviewed by Paul Finebaum this week after the Rebels took down Georgia last weekend. And his comments show that he views Georgia as the best program in the SEC.
"We (Ole Miss) went 11-2 last year ... but the feeling was we were still a ways off from Georgia."
"We went 11-2 last year ... but the feeling was we were still a ways off from Georgia."@Lane_Kiffin tells @finebaum that @OleMissFB spent a lot of the offseason planning to beat Georgia 😤 pic.twitter.com/j2aYJk8tpX
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) November 13, 2024
Kiffin put extra time in preparing for Georgia
Kiffin apparently spent all offseason trying to figure out how to beat Georgia, and rightfully so after the Bulldogs beat the Rebels 52-17 in 2023. That extra preparation, to Kiffin's credit, worked out pretty well for Ole Miss this past weekend.
But regardless of all of that, this shows that Kirby Smart and Georgia have earned the respect from the rest of the country as one of the best (if not the best) programs in the country.
This extra attention from every other team may be one of the reasons why Georgia is struggling some this year. It's a lot different for Georgia when they are the team being hunted instead of just another team on the schedule. Everyone circles the Georgia game on their schedule and marks it as the biggest game of the season. So that fact alone is going to make it that much more difficult for UGA to stay on top of the college football world.
But that is what Smart and Georgia intend to do. After being disrespected by the updated College Football Playoff rankings, the Bulldogs have a chance to eliminate any doubt about what they can accomplish this season when they take on Tennessee on Saturday. A win in this game will announce to the world that Georgia football isn't going anywhere, no matter how much extra preparation other teams make for them.