Georgia has aspired to be Alabama.
Not just a national champion. The Bulldogs did that last year, going through the Crimson Tide to snap a 41-year title drought.
Georgia wants to set the standard in college football, the program that contends for national titles every season and wins them routinely.
The old cliche’ goes: They don’t rebuild they reload. Alabama has taken that to unprecedented levels over 15 years under Nick Saban, winning six national titles.
There is a long way for Georgia to go to match those accomplishments, but Kirby Smart’s top-ranked Bulldogs have never looked more like Alabama than against No. 2 Tennessee on Saturday.
Georgia dominated the biggest game of the year in every way, easily dispatching the team that just three weeks ago knocked off the Crimson Tide.
The Bulldogs smothered the highest-scoring offense in the country. Hendon Hooker, Jalin Hyatt and the Volunteers were getting comparisons to LSU’s 2019 team with Joe Burrow and JaMar Chase since putting 52 on Alabama.
They scored one touchdown against defensive tackle Jalen Carter, cornerback Kelee Ringo and a Bulldogs’ defense that replaced five NFL first-round draft picks after last season and lost its best edge rusher, Nolan Smith, to an injury last week.
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel’s offense had become a marvel across college football, with receivers running wide open with stunning regularity.
The Bulldogs turned off the fireworks.
“I slept better as the week went on, because I felt good about the plan,” Smart said.
Yes, there has been a drop off with Georgia’s defense. It has gone from all-time great to merely the best in the country.
Stetson Bennett, Brock Bowers, Ladd McConkey and the offense broke off big plays early to jump out to a 21-3 lead and then — much the way Alabama used to before it transformed into a quarterback and receiver factory — it bullied the Volunteers for almost three quarters.
It might be time to start taking Bennett more seriously as a Heisman contender.
The Bulldogs spend the next two weeks on the road, at Mississippi State and Kentucky. They look as if they will cruise into another SEC championship game with a playoff spot all but locked up, no matter the outcome.
It’s the time of the year when big-game results have to be looked at in the context of the CFP.
Tennessee was first last week. It won’t be Tuesday. Georgia will, as the committee catches up to the AP Top 25.
The Vols hope victories against Alabama and LSU — which were playing each other in the nightcap of the SEC’s doubleheader showdown — will keep them in the conversation as other conference races are sorted out.
But Tennessee was so thoroughly dominated, the idea that it might make the playoff over an unbeaten team from another Power Five conference can probably be put to rest.
All that jockeying is for others to worry about.
Not Georgia. Ten weeks into this college football season, the Bulldogs are without peer.
AROUND THE COUNTRY
The weather was miserable, but No. 2 Ohio State’s inability to assert itself up front against Northwestern on ether side of the ball was a bit disconcerting for a team heading toward a showdown against No. 4 Michigan. The Buckeyes did set an FBS record with 70 straight games of at least 20 points scored. … No. 7 TCU did what TCU does, falling behind Texas Tech before surging back and away in the fourth quarter. At some point this is going to catch up to the Horned Frogs, but it’s been a ton of fun to watch. TCU is 9-0 as a member of the Big 12 for the first time. … Wisconsin is 3-1 since Jim Leonhard took over as head coach for the fired Paul Chryst a fter smothering Maryland. The Badgers still have rivalry games against Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, but Leonhard is not your typical interim and it might be wise to make the marriage official so he can start recruiting with no doubt about his future. … In other coaching news: It is looking bleak at USF for third-year coach Jeff Scott after the Bulls were drubbed at Temple. Scott is now 4-26. … Texas A&M got hit with a flu big that left it playing short-handed against Florida, and the Gators handed the Aggies their fifth straight loss. That’s A&M’s longest skid since 1980. … Virginia Tech lost its sixth straight, an awful blown fourth-quarter lead to Georgia Tech. For the Hokies, it’s their longest skid since 1987 … Iowa is on a roll. The Hawkeyes went over 350 yards of offense and scored three more offense touchdowns and buried Purdue. … Kansas is going bowling for the first time since 2008. The Jayhawks snapped a three-game losing streak and grabbed win No. 6 pushing around No. 18 Oklahoma State, which is in tatters since beating Texas. … Michigan State shook after a very bad week and upset No. 14 Illinois, throwing the Big Ten West wide-open. The Illini are 4-2 in conference with a game to come against Michigan and Purdue, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota all 3-3.
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