Getty Image
Georgia’s Kirby Smart is getting blasted for recent comments made about the difficulty of the SEC. The head coach absurdly claimed that every conference member should be ranked.
The college football world has been quick to criticize that take, believing he’s only attempting to mask some of his team’s struggles over the first five games of the season.
The Bulldogs remain atop both the AP and Coaches’ Polls after back-to-back national championships. A 5-0 start in 2023 has continued a 22-game winning streak as UGA goes for the three-peat.
This year’s team looks much different than those dominant squads of the past, though. Despite the undefeated start, the Bulldogs have struggled in SEC play.
In their two conference matchups, UGA has had to overcome double digit deficits against South Carolina and Auburn. Neither of those teams were expected to compete for a league championship, and they’ve combined to go just 5-5 on the season.
@unnecroughness Brandon has seen enough to not rank Georgia number 1 anymore #georgia #uga ♬ original sound – Unnecessary Roughness
As many question whether or not the ‘Dawgs are deserving of that No. 1 ranking, Smart is doing his best to mask the struggles. The head coach’s recent comments about the SEC didn’t result in the flex he thought it would.
“I personally think every SEC team should be ranked,” Smart said in a recent press conference. “I can guarantee you there are some teams that don’t want to play them that are ranked… Every team we play in the SEC is good enough to beat us.”
While that last statement might have some truth to it, most of the college football world isn’t ready to crown the SEC king.
The league has already seen losses to North Carolina, Texas, Miami, Utah, UNLV, BYU, Wake Forest, and Florida State. There have been close calls against PAC 12 programs Cal and Arizona, too.
To this point, the performance against outside competition has been subpar, at least for SEC standards. Fans quickly pointed that out in their response to Smart’s comments.
“Kirby is doing everything he can to hide the fact that they play a Mickey Mouse schedule and that the SEC is constantly average outside of UGA and Bama.”
“If everybody loved themselves half as much as the SEC loves themselves, we wouldn’t have a mental depression issue in this country.”
“SEC is terrible this year. Georgia isn’t even that good with that JV QB.”
“Kirby is looking for quality losses since he knows this team is nowhere near his others.”
The remarks come following an offseason of criticism for scheduling in Athens. The Bulldogs were supposed to see another cakewalk to the SEC title game while also boasting one of the worst non-conference slates in the nation.
Some of that was out of Georgia’s control, having to replace a matchup against Oklahoma with Ball State due to a conference ruling, but it doesn’t negate the fact that the Bulldogs were expected to be double-digit favorites in most all of their ’23 contests.
They’ve failed to cover the spread in their first two SEC tests. They may just get their toughest opponent of the season this week in Kentucky.