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A Super Bowl trip for the ‘Philly Dawgs’ makes Georgia’s repeat run darn near untouchable
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When Georgia repeated as 2022 national champs after losing 15 players to the NFL Draft, it was fair to declare it one of the most remarkable feats in college football history. Mind you, this wasn’t a team like Alabama that played for national titles more often than adults visit the dentist. This was Georgia, AKA the program that endured a 4-decade drought between its titles. Outside of another national title, I’m not sure anything could’ve added to the legacy of that repeat run.
Then, the Philly Dawgs happened.
Jordan Davis, AKA the heart and soul of UGA’s title team in 2021, started a trend that would become a major reason the Eagles are playing for a Super Bowl twice in a 3-year stretch. When in doubt, draft Dawgs. Specifically, draft Dawgs who were part of one of the greatest defenses ever in 2021.
Five times, the Eagles did that from 2022-23. Including safety Lewis Cine, who was signed off the Bills practice squad ahead of the playoffs, 6 former Georgia starters from the 2021 squad are on the Eagles’ roster (2020 UGA defensive standout Malik Herring will also suit up for the Kansas City Chiefs). If not for Nakobe Dean’s season-ending knee injury in the NFC Wild Card game, UGA’s 2021 defense would be responsible for 4 Eagles starters in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday night (Philadelphia is a 1.5-point underdog per DraftKings).
But while all eyes are on whether the Chiefs can pull of the first Super Bowl 3-peat ever, the Philly Dawgs are 60 minutes from something that would also be one of the most remarkable feats in football history. Davis, Nolan Smith and NFC Divisional Round hero Jalen Carter will all be starting, and we’ll likely see fellow Philly Dawgs Cine and Kelee Ringo, AKA the man responsible for clinching that 2021 national title with his pick-6 seen ’round the world.
Even if the Philly Dawgs can’t get in the way of the inevitable Patrick Mahomes, this run should still add to that 2021-22 Georgia legacy. Sure, Davis, Dean and Cine were off to the NFL by the time UGA repeated in 2022 — Davis and Dean were already part of a team that reached the Super Bowl as rookies — but think of how unique this is to college football.
Go back to other repeat winners. In the entire Nick Saban era of winning titles and cranking out NFL talent at Alabama, he never had multiple Super Bowl starters on the same side of the ball until Super Bowl LVII when DeVonta Smith and Landon Dickerson did so … for the Eagles.
That number goes up to 3 if you count Jalen Hurts for Alabama because, he, Smith and Dickerson all started in the Super Bowl for the Eagles 2 years ago, but obviously, Hurts finished his college career at Oklahoma. He wasn’t on that 2020 Alabama team, and Dickerson wasn’t on the 2017 Alabama squad that won a title because of Smith’s walk-off touchdown against … never mind. We don’t have to revisit that, Georgia fans. (On Sunday, Smith is trying to become the 5th football player to win a national title, a Heisman Trophy and a Super Bowl.)
However you count Alabama’s total, I’d argue that’s not exactly the same thing as the Eagles having 6 players from Georgia’s 2021 defense.
The same could be said for that 2003-05 USC squad that played for 3 consecutive national titles. Reggie Bush eventually won a Super Bowl (he’s 1 of those 4 aforementioned players with the national title/Heisman/Super Bowl), but the closest thing that group had to the Philly Dawgs was when the Cardinals made the Super Bowl with OL Taitusi Lutui and Matt Leinart, who was backing up Kurt Warner by that time.
Go back to Nebraska’s 1994-97 run. The only time that group produced an NFL team with multiple starters on the same side of the ball in a Super Bowl was when Mike Minter and Mike Rucker started for the Carolina Panthers’ defense in Super Bowl XXXVIII. That was also 6 years removed from that Nebraska team’s last title. That’s not quite the continued run of dominance that the Philly Dawgs have been on in the first half of the 2020s.
For Davis, Smith, Carter, Ringo and even Dean, who still counts even though he’ll be inactive, this will mark the 3rd time in the past 4 years that they’re ending a season in a College Football Playoff National Championship or a Super Bowl. That’s 5 guys on one side of the ball, not including Cine, who’ll have his second such appearance in that 4-year stretch after he led the 2021 Georgia defense in tackles.
Shoot, that’s without even including the No. 1 overall draft pick from 2022, Travon Walker, who didn’t lead UGA’s historically dominant defense in any statistical categories that season but still rose to the top of NFL Draft boards. Walker was 1 of 5 Georgia defensive players taken in the 1st round that year, which is a feat that even the great 2001 Miami defense didn’t beat (the Canes had 3 defensive players drafted in Round 1 in 2002 and 2 in 2003). Carter and Smith were 1st-round picks the following year, which gave UGA’s 2021 defense a whopping 7 1st-round selections, 4 of whom will have already appeared in at least 1 Super Bowl by night’s end on Sunday.
Of course, Miami’s 2000-01 teams produced 14 Pro Bowl players and 2 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees (it’s only a matter of time before Frank Gore and Vince Wilfork join that club). If we’re getting into a “most talented college football teams ever” argument, that’s still quite the trump card. At least it is for now.
Soon, though, Georgia’s 2021 defense could be the backbone of a Super Bowl winner and continue to add to that team’s undeniable legacy.
Dare I say, the Philly Dawgs already accomplished that.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
