By: Kipp Branch

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Once the Sugar Bowl contest with Baylor is complete on New Year’s night the Georgia Bulldogs will still be one of the elite programs currently in college football.

The reason why is Kirby Smart. I have heard a lot of criticism of Kirby Smart since the SEC title game loss last week to LSU and what we should be hearing is a huge thank you to a man who rescued a program that was going nowhere fast in 2015.

When Smart was hired in Athens the previous staff had not won an SEC title in 10 seasons. Georgia had lost two straight games to bad Florida teams, had gone 5-10 against UF under the previous coaching staff, was struggling against Georgia Tech with an OT loss in Athens in 2014, and scraped by with an OT win against Georgia Southern in 2015.

Georgia was known as a finesse team in the SEC that had talent in the skill areas but lacked the physicality to compete with the Alabama’s of the world as evidenced by an embarrassing 38-10 loss to Alabama at home in 2015 in a monsoon that could have been 56-10 on a dry field.

Georgia was a soft program that could not manage rosters, recruit elite level players and numbers along the offensive line. During Kirby’s first year in 2016 he had to bring in a graduate transfer from Rhode Island to start 12 games at offensive tackle due to poor roster management prior to his arrival.

When Kirby was hired, the fan base howled on social media about being a more physical football team, and UGA struggled in Smart’s first year and went 8-5 while he changed the culture in the Classic City.

The offensive line and defensive line became a focus on the recruiting trail, and UGA began the transition into becoming a physical football team and it starting paying off in 2017 with the first of three straight 11-1 regular seasons, with an SEC title and a blown coverage in OT costing UGA a National Championship.

Since 2017 when the transformation began UGA is 35-7 with three straight SEC East Titles, an SEC Title, and a Rose Bowl playoff win over Oklahoma.

The brand of football is tough, physical football, downhill run game and elite defense, and three straight top 3 recruiting classes. Isn’t that what the fan base asked for when he was hired?

So, now after back to back losses in the SEC Championship game to Alabama, which has been a dynasty since 2008, and LSU, who has a once in a generation type QB in Joe Burrow, people are raising concerns over a staff that is a perennial College Football Playoff contender? Have you people lost your minds?

I had a Florida Gator fan tell me UGA under Kirby is the second coming of Mark Richt. If that was the case then UGA fans would have watched Florida play LSU last Saturday.

Food for thought folks. Richt was 1-3 in his first four in Jacksonville. Kirby is 3-1 and UGA has physically whipped UF on the line of scrimmage over the last three seasons.

Now that we have that out of the way, we all know Jake Fromm had a tough year and the offense needs some tweaking, but Georgia is what you all wanted it to be under Kirby Smart. That is a team that imposes its will upon most others. You are not going to win every game, but he is winning 78% of the time.

The 43 wins in his first four seasons is most in school history over that span. Georgia will be a top 10 team in 2020 and a playoff contender.

The only folks wishing Kirby was on the hot seat reside in Florida, Lower Alabama, and North Avenue in Atlanta.

Enjoy these times Dawg fans, Kirby Smart has made UGA elite. Kirby will make the changes he needs to make this offseason. In Kirby we trust!