Over the last three seasons, no program has been more dominant in college football than Georgia. Kirby Smart has his alma mater firing on all cylinders, as he winds down his first decade back in Athens. While the 2021 team had a historically dominant defense, the 2022 team ran the table to perfection to pull off an impressive repeat. A lot can change between now and early January, but the Dawgs are 8-0 through nine weeks. They still have the toughest teams left to play, but after cleaning Florida's clock in the Cocktail Party for the third straight year, this Georgia football program is undeniably dynastic. I nominated my alma mater's football program this year because it is not just appointment television for me every fall Saturday, but the Dawgs are the sport's new gold standard. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. Nobody is better in college football than Georgia.
- John Buhler
FanSided Staff Writer
What was the icon or totem for this fandom this year?
The Dawgs' latest run through the College Football Playoff was the stuff of legend. To beat an elite Ohio State team at nearby Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on a missed field goal as the clock struck midnight in 2022 to ring in 2023 was chef's kiss perfection. To follow that up a week later with an absolute demolition of Max Duggan and Sonny Dykes' TCU Horned Frogs was the cherry on top. With quarterback Stetson Bennett IV riding off into the sunset as a two-time College Football Playoff national champion and playing his four best games of his college career in those moments will always be special to me. Carson Beck has done a fine job receiving the baton from him, but The Mailman is a living legend!
What we’ll remember about this fandom a decade from now
I think we will look back on this era of Georgia football as one in which supreme excellence was redefined. We saw Alabama be this under Nick Saban from 2009 to 2021 and briefly Pete Carroll at USC from 2002 to say ... 2008, maybe. In a world where society wants us to lower the bar and the standards we all hold ourselves to, Georgia never gave in to that notion. Battling complacency is so incredibly difficult, but Smart is a master motivator and has found the special sauce in The Classic City. In time, we may see blue-blood programs like Ohio State and Texas get their absolutely perfect coach. Heck, it could be Ryan Day or Steve Sarkisian in a few years for all we know. For now, Smart runs the entire Power Five.