The Georgia Bulldogs are going for the 3-peat.
Everyone knows that. Everyone knows it will be perhaps the biggest storyline as we move through the 2023 college football season. If you don’t, you’ve been living under a rock. And you probably aren’t a college football fan. And you shouldn’t be on this website, come to think of it. How’d you get to Saturday Down South? Were you looking for Southern Living?
Few teams ever get this opportunity. The last team to do it was 1934-36 Minnesota and, as I’ve said before, I (respectfully) don’t count that. To me, the Bulldogs are looking to chart new territory.
But there’s a reason no team has achieved this in the modern era — because it is really damned hard to do.
So many things have to go right to win just a single championship — recruiting, cohesion, motivation, health, weather, the bounce of a football one way or the other — but doing it 3 straight times? Impossible.
But maybe not.
The Bulldogs undoubtedly have the team to do it. Top to bottom, they’re probably the best team again on paper. And if a few things swing the right way, we could be talking about a dynasty we’ve never seen in the history of the game.
The factors:
Carson Beck is the guy
No surprise here.
Georgia’s pursuit of immortality begins and ends with Stetson Bennett IV’s replacement. The guy is Beck, as announced by coach Kirby Smart, and the timing of that announcement should provide some confidence for worried fans.
I’m not an expert and I’m not in the locker room, but consider the other quarterback battles around the country. And I’m talking high-profile quarterback battles like Kyle McCord and Devin Brown at Ohio State, or Jalen Milroe and Tyler Buchner and Ty Simpson at Alabama.
Those battles are seemingly far from over, but the predicted battle in Athens was much ado about nothing.
Beck is the guy. He knows the offense the best. He showed immense improvement as a backup last year. He showed out in the spring. He has turned heads in camp. All signs point to No. 15 being in good standing with the Georgia offense.
But all of that can change when things get real.
How will Beck handle a situation like Georgia-Missouri 2022? How will he handle a 2- or 3-interception game? What happens when he’s staring down Alabama’s NFL-ready starters instead of Vanderbilt’s backups?
We’ll see.
One thing is certain: If this section shifts from “Carson Beck is the guy” to “Brock Vandagriff is the guy,” then something has probably already gone wrong.
Fill the middle
Georgia has had the rare pleasure of having back-to-back high 1st-round draft choices man its nose tackle position over the past few years. Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter are among the best players of their kind in the past decade.
Now they’re both playing in the NFL (you’re welcome, Philly), and the Bulldogs are looking for the next man to fill that position.
The bulk of the snaps will go to a pair of seniors, Nazir Stackhouse and Zion Logue, with Stackhouse being the more highly regarded of the 2. He is big and strong and very strong against the run. He’s looked at as a high-round draft pick in 2024, maybe as high as the 2nd round.
So to say the cupboard is bare would be a stretch.
Still, you don’t just lose that kind of talent and not miss a beat.
Georgia has ranked at the very top of the country in run defense in 3 of the past 4 seasons. The 1 season it wasn’t No. 1, it was No. 2. Those guys, starting with Davis and Carter, turned opposing offenses into 1 dimension.
Do that again this year with a secondary like Georgia’s 2023 unit in pass defense, and you’re probably looking (again) at the best defense in the country.
Don’t lose that edge
It has become a comedic piece of the 2023 national championship postgame scrum. Players claiming that national media or fans or opposing coaches or, frankly, anyone thought they would finish 5-7 last season after winning their 1st national title in 41 years.
I’ll give you a minute to collect yourself …
No one thought that team was going 5-7 last year. Maybe 11-1. Maybe. With a loss in the SEC Championship Game. Maybe.
And here’s some unwelcome news for the Bulldogs: That motivation tactic is not going to work this fall. The team is No. 1. It is a relatively heavy favorite in betting circles to win the national title. The talk of the 3-peat will get louder and more distracting with each victory.
How is it possible for this team to maintain its edge?
That will go a long way toward determining its chances to do the impossible.
Here are a few motivational suggestions: No one has done this before. Nick Saban’s team choked it away. USC’s juggernaut lost on a 4th-down scramble into college football immortality. Your schedule is too weak. They think you’re overrated. They think you won the past 2 because Jameson Williams got hurt for Alabama and Marvin Harrison Jr. the next year for Ohio State. Three-peat? You shouldn’t even have 1 championship. Plus, it wasn’t you. That was Davis and Carter and Nolan Smith and Nakobe Dean. That was Bennett and James Cook and Darnell Washington and AD Mitchell.
Just to name a few.
Fend off revenge by Ohio State … or Alabama … or Michigan
If Georgia is going to do it, it will likely have to beat at least 1 team seeking revenge from the past 2 College Football Playoffs. Or, if you’re feeling spicy, imagine a scenario where Georgia must run the gauntlet and beat these 3 teams in a row.
We’re talking final boss vibes, there.
There is absolutely a world where the Bulldogs must face the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship, Michigan or Ohio State in a semifinal and then the other in the national championship.
That is as scary as it gets for a team on the verge of doing something no team has ever done.
Michigan is running practice scenarios called “Beat Georgia” for just such an occasion. Ohio State seems to be fueled by nothing more than the anger and hatred for the Bulldogs over a perceived missed call on a player that injured Harrison (it was borderline, but clean) and a last-second missed field goal. And I think no energy source on this planet — not fossil fuels, solar power, wind turbines or nuclear — is as palpable as that flowing through Alabama’s Saban.
Just take a look at this reaction to David Pollack’s assertion that Georgia had taken over college football during last season’s championship game. You telling me that guy isn’t just stewing over his protege Smart’s success?
Each of these teams is talented. Each of these teams has questions. And Georgia does, too.
But what a poetic end to a Herculean quest for a 3-peat this would be.
