The Georgia Bulldogs won their third SEC title under head coach Kirby Smart Saturday night after beating the Texas Longhorns 22-19 in the first ever overtime game in the SEC championship. With the win the Dawgs also earned a first-round bye in the new 12-team College Football Playoff, and will play in the Sugar Bowl quarterfinal game on New Year’s Day as the No. 2 seed in pursuit of their third national title in four seasons.
Even though Smart led Georgia to back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022, The Morning Shift explained why this season has been Smart's best coaching job.
“I really truly believe this is Kirby Smart’s best coaching job, and to kind of highlight or underline that statement we went back and looked at how many kind of battles they were in this year," Mike Johnson said. "Guys, they were down at halftime five different times against power-five teams this year.”
Mike then explained how impressive it is that Georgia was able to win most of those games, and why a lot of credit should be given to Smart for not only getting his guys to rally and play a lot of really good second halves this season, but getting one of the least talented teams he’s had since becoming the head coach at Georgia to rally and put together a bunch of great second-half performances.
“Think about what that program and that team has been able to do in the second half of digging deep over the last month-plus," Mike said. "It’s not last year or the year before or the national title Georgia teams, this is Kirby Smart being like 'hey we are going to out-coach you and have better conditioned players that can make adjustments moving forward in the game.' I think it’s awesome.”
Beau Morgan agreed with Mike and piggybacked off Mike’s point to make a pretty bold statement.
“I think it’s the worst team he’s had since 2020 on the field as far as talent, and how they’ve played,” Beau said. He also believes that the regular season schedule Smart and the Bulldogs had to play this year is a big reason why this is Smart's best coaching job ever.
It’s one thing to be a great recruiter, which Smart already proved himself to be before this season. And while nobody thought Smart wasn’t a great coach, what he’s done and still has the opportunity to do with this Georgia team has cemented how great of a coach he is.
