Champ Bailey feels his alma mater Georgia Bulldogs are about to be as good as the Alabama Crimson Tide. Is Bailey on to something with Georgia football?
It’s been almost 20 years since cornerback Champ Bailey teed it up Between the Hedges for his alma mater Georgia Bulldogs football program. Bailey would be a consensus All-American in 1998 for the Bulldogs, eventually becoming a 12-time Pro Bowler for the Washington Redskins and the Denver Broncos.
While it was a trying first year for head coach Kirby Smart at Georgia, Bailey has his former Georgia teammate’s back. Bailey went on 680 The Fan in Atlanta and reaffirmed that Smart will be taking the Georgia football program to new heights saying, “Give us two or three years and we’ll be where Alabama is right now.”
To be fair, Bailey’s take could be biased, given his allegiances to the Georgia program and his former secondary teammate in Smart. However, Bailey might be on to something. Is Georgia a sleeping giant in the SEC East? Can the Bulldogs finally return to glory under coach Smart?
In the 15 years prior to Smart, former Bulldogs head coach Mark Richt had Georgia humming as a 10-win program annually. Georgia made a bowl every season Richt was in Athens, winning two SEC Championships in 2002 and 2005. However, Georgia never played for a national title under Richt despite being a top-10 recruiting program for most of it.
Like Richt, Smart is an adept recruiter. His ability to connect with young players and their families was a huge reason the Alabama Crimson Tide have become a juggernaut under head coach Nick Saban. Saban might be the best recruiter college football has ever seen, but Smart has already established himself as an ace in that department at Georgia.
Smart locked down Georgia’s borders to land most of the state’s best football talent. This translated to the No. 3 class of the 2017 cycle. Georgia is one of the few states that produces enough in-state talent to sustain a blue-blood football program. Smart is taking advantage of his vast football recruiting territory, something Richt struggled with in his final years in Athens.
It’s not just recruitment that has Smart poised to turn Georgia into a national power. Keep in mind that Georgia plays in the weaker of the two SEC divisions. The SEC East has not had a dominant program since Urban Meyer left Gainesville in the late 2000s.
While an 8-5 2016 campaign may have many in Dawg Nation questioning Georgia’s decision to fire Richt and hire Smart, everything is going according to plan in Bailey’s eyes. He added, via Gridiron Now, “I think we got the right coach now. We’re going to get over that hump. Last year, I didn’t expect them to win the SEC. But I did expect them to have a winning record and win their bowl game. That’s what they did.”
Georgia went 7-5 (4-4) during the regular season. Losses to Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, and Georgia Tech sting, while losses to Florida and Tennessee were expected. Georgia did beat teams like Auburn and North Carolina. The Bulldogs knocked off TCU in the Liberty Bowl to get to 8-5.
Usually, it takes about a year and a half for a blue-blood program like Georgia to know if it has the right coach in place. Schools like Georgia are able to land top-tier recruits even in bad years.
Georgia doesn’t have a brutal schedule in 2017. If the Bulldogs can win on the road in South Bend against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Smart could have his team undefeated at 7-0 before the annual Georgia/Florida game in Jacksonville.
Next: SEC Programs Ranked By Statistical Greatness
Recruitment will be key in Georgia’s turnaround under Smart. He’s clearly great at that. However, it will come down to the x’s and the o’s for him if he does transform Georgia into a national power in the next few years.