Georgia football: Top 5 games of the Kirby Smart era
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Georgia football returns to the field right around the corner. But first, it’s time for the annual SEC Network Takeover for an 11th summer!
Across the end of June and all the way up to July 13, the SEC Network is giving each league program a full day to celebrate accomplishments from the 2024-25 athletic calendar. Wednesday, July 2, belongs to Georgia, and that got us thinking.
What would the list of the top moments from the Kirby Smart era look like? It’s admittedly a tough list with the Bulldogs going 105-19 overall with a pair of national titles in his 9 years at the helm. Even more impressive, Georgia is 53-5 since the start of the 2021 season with 2 titles and 3 trips to the College Football Playoff in that span.
However, not all of the signature moments from the Smart era come from recent seasons. So, let’s dive into the full list, shall we? But first, let’s take a glance at some of the honorable mentions that just missed the cut.
Honorable mentions: 2022 CFP Semifinals vs. Ohio State (Georgia 42, OSU 41), 2024 regular season at Texas (Georgia 30, Texas 15), 2024 regular season at Alabama (Georgia 34, Alabama 41), 2023 regular season vs. Ole Miss (Georgia 52, Ole Miss 17), 2022 regular season vs. Tennessee (Georgia 27, Tennessee 13)
5. 2017 at Notre Dame — Georgia 20, Notre Dame 19
It’s easy in retrospect to forget how large this matchup was for Georgia. After all, Brian Kelly and his Notre Dame squad were ranked just No. 24 in the country at the time of this game, and the Bulldogs were only 15th, so this was not a major top-10 showdown.
However, it’s important to remember in the moment what Georgia had been to this point under Smart. It was just his 2nd year in Athens, and the Bulldogs were 2-3 against ranked opponents in his first season. Combine that with the historic nature of UGA heading to South Bend, and it set a brilliant atmosphere.
The numbers from this game did not set any records, and it was far from clean by either side. But the clutch nature of the win set the stage for an impressive campaign and College Football Playoff appearance.
4. 2022 SEC Championship Game — Georgia 50, LSU 30
There are plenty of options to choose from in the 2022 season, but the SEC title game stands out for its historical significance. For starters, it was Smart’s 2nd league championship, and the offensive performance was a thing of beauty.
The 50 points is a record for Georgia in its SEC Championship Game history, spearheaded by 4 passing touchdowns from Stetson Bennett IV and a pair of rushing touchdowns by Kenny McIntosh. Defensively, the Bulldogs did surrender 30 points, but they also did enough to build a 35-7 halftime lead and force 3 turnovers, so the game was never in real jeopardy.
And who can forget this iconic moment between Jalen Carter and Jayden Daniels?
It was long apparent that this UGA squad was special, and a 12-0 regular season and SEC title game victory solidified that. Fans would soon learn it was just a precursor for even bigger and better things down the road.
3. 2017 Rose Bowl — Georgia 54, Oklahoma 48 (2OT)
By all accounts, it is safe to call the Rose Bowl (in the CFP semifinals) the breakthrough moment for Smart’s era. It was just his 2nd game against a top-5 opponent (the other being the SEC Championship Game win over No. 4 Auburn), but Oklahoma rolled into the Rose Bowl as Big 12 champs with a Heisman Trophy winner in Baker Mayfield.
For the first half of that matchup, it looked like the Bulldogs were not quite up to the task. Oklahoma scored 31 points before the break, including a passing touchdown and a receiving touchdown from Mayfield and 2 rushing touchdowns from Rodney Anderson.
Fortunately, Georgia ended the half with a field goal that sparked a 24-0 run to take the lead before things went back-and-forth into overtime. Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, the power behind that year’s offense, each had long rushing scores in that span.
After a big-time stand by the Dawg defense in double overtime, it was Michel sending the Bulldogs into the national title game with a game-winning touchdown run. It resulted in a jubilant celebration on the Georgia sideline, complete with an epic response from Smart.
Arguably one of the best Rose Bowls ever played, the 2 sides combined for over 1,000 yards of offense and 102 total points, a mark that still stands as the highest-scoring Rose Bowl on record. Chubb and Michel combined for 326 yards and 6 total touchdowns in the win. An 11-tackle performance from Roquan Smith paced the Georgia defense.
2. 2022 CFP National Championship — Georgia 65, TCU 7
You knew this game was somewhere on the list, right? The only surprise, to some, might be that I have it No. 2 on the list and not No. 1 overall. (You probably already guessed which game will be No. 1 once you see this game here, but let the suspense rise for a minute before you skip ahead.)
Throughout the 2022 season, Georgia looked even more hellbent on a mission than the squad that lifted the 2021 national title trophy. That’s what happens when you return a lot of key production from a squad that went 14-1 and entered the season No. 3 overall in the preseason AP Poll.
The Bulldogs blew out Oregon 49-3 in the season opener, and we quickly found out that said a heck of a lot more about Georgia than the Ducks. Smart’s squad would finish with a top-5 unit on either side of the ball and probably won the Game of the Year in the CFP semifinals when Georgia held on for a 42-41 win over Ohio State.
In fact, I won’t fault anyone who believes that the Peach Bowl victory deserves a spot on this list over the demolition of TCU. But, in terms of a “best game” classification, you will not be able to find a more flawless performance than the one the Bulldogs laid down in the title game.
Georgia allowed 1 touchdown drive to the Horned Frogs after grabbing a 10-0 lead, and… that’s it. Seriously. Just about nothing else happened in the game. At least in terms of TCU’s offense.
The Bulldogs would end the first half on a 28-0 run, and they would finish the game on a 55-0 run overall. Stetson Bennett completed 72% of his passes with 4 touchdowns, the Bulldogs averaged over 5.7 yards per carry with 5 rushing touchdowns, and the defense recorded 5 sacks and 2 interceptions. If that’s not enough, the Horned Frogs had exactly 36 rushing yards and were held under 200 yards of offense in the blowout.
The 65 points scored by Georgia and the 58-point margin of victory are still records for a BCS or CFP National Championship Game. The only way to categorize that game is pure domination in its purest form.
1. 2021 CFP National Championship — Georgia 33, Alabama 18
Of Georgia’s 2 national titles under Smart, the pick here is the win over the mighty Nick Saban, Smart’s former boss, in a classic revenge game for the Bulldogs.
For much of the 2021 season, Georgia stood as the No. 1 team in the country. That was the case until Bryce Young shredded the Bulldogs as Alabama blew past in a dominant SEC Championship Game win. That loss moved Smart to 0-4 against Saban, and all signs were pointing to it being 0-5 entering the national title game.
Instead of another loss, the Bulldogs flipped the script with Stetson Bennett coming up in the clutch. He threw a pair of 4th-quarter touchdowns in a span of 5 minutes to turn an 18-13 deficit into a 26-18 Georgia lead with 3 minutes to play.
On top of those heroics, Kelee Ringo stepped up to deliver what will live on as one of the truly legendary moments in UGA history:
After throwing 3 touchdowns without a turnover in the SEC title game, Young was picked off twice by the Bulldog defense, including the title-sealing pick-6 by Ringo. The loss of Jameson Williams did hurt the Crimson Tide, but the Dawgs eliminated Alabama’s rushing attack in this one, holding the Tide to 30 rushing yards.
Georgia finally conquering the Saban puzzle and getting its first national title since 1980 (and ultimately kickstarting back-to-back titles) makes this game the signature moment of the Smart era to date.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
