Bobby Bowden used to say that, to contend for a national championship, a team needed “a national championship schedule.” (He’d pronounce it “SKED-yool.”) What he meant: A championship aspirant needed a few – but not too many – testing games, and it needed the toughest of those to be staged at home or a neutral site.
Vince Dooley used to say that a coach could expect to draw peak performances from a team only two or three times a season. That didn’t mean the coach was a poor motivator. That didn’t mean the team was disinterested. It meant that those involved were human beings, not robots.
We’ve had a few days to process Georgia’s season. We have a body of work to assess. Our week-to-week viewing led us to believe this was a team of wild mood swings. The bigger picture suggests that – with a hat tip to the always-incisive Dooley – that this season shouldn’t have borne so many surprises.
After beating Texas for a second time, Kirby Smart was asked what being SEC champions meant. His response: “It means rest for the team Greg Sankey and his team sent on the road all year long.” His point: Of the Bulldogs’ four regular-season games played in an opponent’s stadium, three were against ranked opponents.
Most of us figured Georgia would stumble somewhere along its rocky road. On Sept. 28, it lost a wild game in Tuscaloosa. On Oct. 19, it beat No. 1 Texas in Austin. On Nov. 9, the Bulldogs were routed at Ole Miss. Those three games produced 1.5 halves of peak performance. Should we have been surprised? In hindsight, no.
In hindsight, it’s fair to suggest that Georgia did well to lose only twice. ESPN’s Football Power Index rates the Bulldogs’ schedule as the nation’s hardest. The next-toughest slate among the 11 other College Football Playoff qualifiers is ranked 20th. The schedules of Notre Dame and Indiana, one of which Georgia will play in a quarterfinal, are 59th and 67th.
Seven SEC teams finished in the CFP’s Top 25. No. 3 Texas faced only Georgia, albeit twice. No. 7 Tennessee played Alabama and Georgia. No. 11 Alabama met Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Missouri. No. 14 Ole Miss got South Carolina and Georgia. No. 15 South Carolina drew Ole Miss, Alabama and Missouri. No. 19 Missouri saw Alabama and South Carolina. Got all that?
Only Georgia faced Texas, Tennessee, Alabama and Ole Miss – the CFP’s highest-rated SEC teams after the Bulldogs. Only Georgia played six games against teams ranked among the committee’s first 16. Only one of the six was staged at Sanford Stadium. The Bulldogs went 4-2 in those games. How good is that? Glad you asked.
· In 2017, Georgia’s first CFP run, the Bulldogs played three regular-season games against Top 25 opponents. Two – Notre Dame and Auburn – were true road games. Georgia won one of the two.
· In 2021, which brought Smart’s first national title, the Bulldogs faced four ranked opponents over the regular season. Only Auburn was met on the road. Georgia won 34-10.
· In 2022, which brought Smart’s second national title, Georgia faced two ranked opponents over the regular season. The first was Oregon in Atlanta; the second was Tennessee in Athens. The Bulldogs won both.
And now you’re wondering: What of the Herschel years? From 1980 through 1982, the Bulldogs went 33-3 without playing a single game in a ranked opponent’s stadium. (And now you’re asking: What about Clemson? The Tigers, who finished as 1981 national champs, were unranked in the AP Top 20 when they beat Georgia 13-3 in Death Valley.)
Never had a Georgia team faced a schedule like this. The SEC schedulers did the Bulldogs no favors, but they won the SEC anyway. They earned their bye.
You’ll have noticed that next year’s schedule, released this week, looks rather different. Georgia will face only three true road games – at Tennessee, at Auburn, at Mississippi State. (The Bulldogs will meet Georgia Tech in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.) And look who’s coming to Athens.
Alabama. And Ole Miss. And Texas.
That could well be a national championship SKED-yool. But don’t be surprised if this difficult season yields another natty first.
