A thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts forever.
29 games. Two national championships. Seven first-round draft picks. One of the best College Football Playoff games of all time. Countless smiles on the faces of the Bulldog faithful.
This was a special time for Georgia football. The Bulldogs became the first team to win back-to-back national titles in a decade. They nearly became the first team to win three consecutive national titles since Franklin D. Roosevelt was president.
They conquered their demons, vanquished the Crimson Tide and ascended to the top of the college football food chain. They claimed their first national title in over 40 years, with a walk-on quarterback under center.
Then, they doubled down on their success. Georgia ran through every challenger that stepped up and put an exclamation point on a near-flawless undefeated season with a 65-7 thrashing of TCU.
But ultimately, all things must come to an end. The Bulldogs ran into the Crimson Tide once more, and the Tide rolled on, just like they have in the past against Georgia. Nick Saban improved to 4-0 against Georgia in the SEC championship and improved his team’s playoff positioning in the process.
Meanwhile, Georgia has fallen out of the playoff field, and therefore out of contention for a national championship. There will be no trophy. There will be no three-peat.
The season isn’t over, though. Georgia will move on to the Orange Bowl to face Florida State and attempt to salvage the remaining weeks before the offseason arrives.
Win or lose against the Seminoles, players, coaches and everyone involved with the Bulldogs should be proud of the run they’ve been on. They’ll be remembered as one of the greatest teams in college football history, and they’ll be beloved by generations of Georgia fans to come.
Yes, Georgia lost to Alabama in the SEC championship … again. Setbacks are a part of progress, and this streak of dominance had to hit a roadblock eventually.
Georgia will enter the offseason with a list of questions, just like they have for the past few years. Who will be leaving over the spring? Who will be staying? How can they address the holes on the roster? How can they improve on what they did this season? How can they return to the national championship?
Setbacks are a part of progress, but to get over those setbacks, Kirby Smart and his staff will have to find a way to answer those looming questions. If his tenure thus far has been any indication, though, Smart and the Bulldogs will be restless in their quest for another taste of national championship gold.
“I love [this team],” Smart said. “There’s two classes of our kids [in the locker room] who have not lost a game. They’re resilient, they’re fighters — in life, a lot of times, you really can’t get better until you lose. You have to find out what you can do better. A lot of guys really care about this team, and the culture is really good on this team. They were hurt in there, and rightfully so, but the message doesn’t change. It’s [about] looking inward and figuring out what we can do.”
