Road to the College Football Playoff: Georgia Bulldogs
By John Buhler
It only took two years for Kirby Smart to lead his Georgia Bulldogs to the College Football Playoff. Let’s take a look at how Georgia made the final four.
The 2017 season was a make-or-break year for the Georgia Bulldogs football program. After a disappointing first year on the job where Kirby Smart’s alma mater went 8-5, some questioned if moving on from long-time head coach Mark Richt was the right call.
Dawg Nation knew that Smart could recruit, but it remained to be seen how he would fare in his second year as Georgia’s head coach. Usually a traditional power like Georgia pops in the second year under the right head coach.
Though the SEC East was in a bit of a down cycle, Georgia saw no problem taking advantage of a weakened division, going a perfect 6-0 in divisional play for the first time. While the Dawgs would fall on the road to cross-divisional rival Auburn in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry in mid-November, Georgia would avenge its lone loss in the 2017 SEC Championship to reach the College Football Playoff as SEC Champions.
With a combination of elite defensive prowess, a blitzkrieg of bruising tailbacks and a tenacity that we have just not seen out of Georgia football since the Herschel Walker days, Georgia has rightfully earned its way in the 2018 College Football Playoff as the No. 3 national seed. Let’s take a look back at the road that ultimately led Georgia to the Rose Bowl.
September
September was going to be a telling month for the Georgia program. If the Bulldogs were able to find a way to win in South Bend against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, they had a chance at being undefeated heading into the neutral-site affair versus the arch rival Florida Gators down in Jacksonville shortly before Halloween.
Georgia began its 2017 campaign at home versus the mid-major giant killer Appalachian State Mountaineers. A decade ago, Appalachian State shocked the ranked Michigan Wolverines on the road in Week 1 of the 2007 college football season. Though the Mountaineers didn’t top the Dawgs, the unthinkable did happen.
True sophomore starting quarterback Jacob Eason injured his left knee on a scramble out of bounds. Thrust into action was former four-star recruit and true freshman signal caller Jake Fromm. Though Georgia went on to beat Appalachian State 31-10, that Week 2 road date in South Bend loomed large.
Making his first career start on the road versus Notre Dame, Fromm was able to lead the Dawgs to a thrilling 20-19 victory over the Fighting Irish on Sep. 9. With half of Notre Dame Stadium decked out in Red and Black, Fromm used the crowd’s energy to help calm down his nerves. His touchdown pass to wide receiver Terry Godwin was ultimately the difference in the biggest regular season win for Georgia in 2017.
While Eason remained sidelined with a bum knee, Fromm and the Dawgs gained confidence as they rattled off dominating victories over the Samford Bulldogs, Mississippi State Bulldogs and Tennessee Volunteers. Samford put up 14 points on Georgia in a 42-14 blowout. Georgia outscored its first two SEC opponents 72-3 to close out September for the Dawgs.
Keeping Nick Fitzgerald and the Mississippi State offense out of the end zone at home was a huge early season resume booster for Georgia. Shutting out Tennessee in Knoxville 41-0 brought everything full circle. Georgia successfully avenged its embarrassing 2016 loss to Tennessee at home on a Joshua Dobbs Hail Mary. Keeping Tennessee scoreless in running back Nick Chubb’s return to Knoxville was an early sign that this season was different for Georgia.
October
October was when the Georgia hype train really started to pick up steam. Georgia was a cool 5-0 (2-0) heading into the second month of the season. Though they only had three games because of their pre-Georgia/Florida bye, all the Dawgs did in October was beat the tar out of SEC East rivals in October.
If shutting out Tennessee on the road wasn’t enough, Georgia spanked the Vanderbilt Commodores 45-14 on Oct. 7. This was around the time where Dawg Nation began to not only understand that Eason wasn’t going to get his job back, but that Fromm might actually be the better of the two quarterbacks. Of course, Vanderbilt proved to be a lousy team throughout SEC play the rest of the way, but this third straight SEC blowout catapulted the Dawgs into the national College Football Playoff conversation.
Though it will almost certainly get overlooked in the annals of this team’s story, perhaps the most important game of the year was the one at home versus the then hapless Missouri Tigers. Missouri was absolutely atrocious to start the year. The Tigers were sloppy offensively and toothless on defense. Yet Missouri was able to carve up the Georgia secondary on a few occasions. This was the game where Mizzou signal caller Drew Lock started to generate NFL Draft buzz.
Smart was furious with how his team played undisciplined ball in the back end of his defense. Georgia did something it rarely did in the Richt era: made the proper halftime adjustments. The Dawgs came out and demolished the Tigers in the second half to win 53-28 to improve to 7-0 (4-0). To close out October, Georgia had to beat its biggest SEC rival in Florida own in Jacksonville.
In years past, even great Richt teams would find a way to play terrible football versus the arch rival Gators. Not Smart and not in 2017. Georgia beat the brakes off Florida so badly that Gators head coach Jim McElwain was fired after getting trounced 42-7 down in Jacksonville. Georgia remained perfect at 8-0 (5-0) through the October slate.
November
After Georgia/Florida, the Dawgs’ remaining schedule started to intensify. Their remaining four games were against rivals, including road dates at Auburn and at Georgia Tech in November. Possibly primed for a letdown game after the thrilling win over Florida, Georgia proved to be too talented for Will Muschamp’s South Carolina Gamecocks to take down. Georgia won in Athens 24-10 to improve to 9-0 (6-0) on the year. The Dawgs almost locked up the SEC East that week.
A week later would be the roughest week of Georgia’s season. While Georgia remained perfect heading into mid-November, cross-divisional rival Auburn had become a buzzsaw two-loss team. Nobody wanted to play that Kevin Steele defense or deal with that Kerryon Johnson-led running game, especially at Jordan-Hare.
Georgia had absolutely no chance to beat Auburn on Nov. 11. NFL teams would have lost to Auburn that day. That Saturday, Auburn was the best team in football, as they embarrassed the No. 1 team in the nation 40-17 down on The Plains. Georgia looked exposed, as Chubb and company couldn’t run the football and Fromm looked overwhelmed for the first time in his collegiate career. However, we all had a feeling these two rivals might meet again in Atlanta on Dec. 2.
After that Auburn defeat, the national media started to turn on the Dawgs a bit. Yes, they knew that Georgia was going to win the SEC East, but that they didn’t really have a shot at winning a national title. Georgia would beat rivals Kentucky and Georgia Tech in the final two weeks to finish the regular season at 11-1 (7-1).
Since Auburn handled the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Iron Bowl, Georgia would meet the Tigers in the SEC Championship for the first time. With a College Football Playoff ticket on the line, the second installment of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry was sure to be an instant classic down in Atlanta.
December
For the first time since 2012, the Bulldogs played in the SEC Championship. The last time Georgia played for a conference title in Atlanta, the Bulldogs came up five yards short of beating Alabama for the right to destroy Notre Dame in the 2012 BCS National Championship. Georgia had not won the SEC since 2005. Auburn had won the conference championship as recently as 2013, the last time the Tigers played for it all in Atlanta.
Some were skeptical that Georgia was going to be able to make the necessary adjustments to beat an Auburn team that had crushed their souls less than a month ago. Auburn was poised to be the first two-loss team to make the College Football Playoff. While Auburn scored on its first possession in the 2017 SEC Championship, that would be all she wrote for the Tigers offense.
What happened next was the most dominating game out of Georgia’s season of dominance in the SEC. Fromm was able to beat the Tigers with his arm on several great out-going routes. The stage wasn’t too big for him this time. Georgia’s best player, junior inside linebacker Roquan Smith, had his best game in Georgia uniform. He neutralized the weakened Auburn rushing attack. This game might have been enough to make him a first-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
What really made the difference in this game for Georgia was its ability to pound the rock. Chubb, Sony Michel and D’Andre Swift ran the ball down Auburn’s throat throughout the ball game. If you squinted your eyes a bit, you would have thought you were seeing Alabama giving it to Auburn in the Iron Bowl. That is pretty much what happened, except that it was Auburn’s other rival laying the smackdown on the Tigers.
Overall, Georgia didn’t care what the critics had to say about their football team. That a true freshman couldn’t win in South Bend, that it was a down year for the SEC, that Auburn was going to kill them for the second time in a month. None of that mattered.
What mattered was Georgia’s never-wavering belief in itself. The right coach took a historically underachieving football program and has given the team its best season since 1982. Nobody doubts that Georgia doesn’t belong in the playoff anymore. The Dawgs absolutely earned their right to be there.
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However, many remain skeptical that the Dawgs can win it all. It’s been a beautiful ride for Georgia so far in 2017. The next stop is in Pasadena. If they top the Oklahoma Sooners in the Rose Bowl, it would be only fitting to see Georgia win the national in the state capital of Atlanta in two weeks. There is still a lot of fight left in these Dawgs. Don’t think for a second that they can’t do the improbable, because they already did.