Georgia Bulldogs: Coach Kirby Smart makes history

The number 100 has special and significant value throughout human history and culture. In mathematics, it is a perfect square number and the sum of the first nine prime numbers. In finance, it is the basis for all percentages. That part touches your life every day, whether you realize it or not. If someone lives to be a hundred, everyone celebrates. You get a hundred dollars, and you celebrate. Or your wife does. From the Holy Bible to cinema to music to literature, you can find meaning when the number 100 is invoked. Coach Kirby Smart hit 100 wins Saturday and made his own history in the process.

When the Georgia Bulldogs kicked off last Saturday night in Austin, Texas, not many really gave them a chance of winning the game. This writer will admit that I told my cousin (shout out to coach Flowers and those Marion County Warriors) I put their chances at about 30%. You can only go by what you’ve seen, as logic tells, and frankly, we hadn’t seen four quarters of quality football from these Dawgs yet this season. And Texas is a national championship quality team. And it was at their house.

What those Georgia Bulldogs reminded us, though, is that this Kirby Smart led football program is not like most others. Reality is that they still haven’t put four quality quarters together on both sides of the ball in one game. What they did do though, despite three turnovers on offense and eight dropped passes, was turn the Celsius up to 100 degrees on defense and special teams and cook the other team. All night.

The offense was able to muster 30 points despite those three turnovers because the defense forced four turnovers of its own. And even though the red zone touchdown woes continued, place kicker P. Woodring was a perfect 3 for 3 and punter B. Thorson averaged 54 yards a punt on four punts. The defense had six sacks on the season going into that game. They walked out with 13. It was like watching the “Red Wedding” any time Texas had the ball.

Throw in all the A, B and C list celebrities, the ubiquitous terrible officiating and resulting controversy, and the prime-time kick and you had the football equivalent of a national crime scene on ABC.

Lots of ink has been spilled on the controversial officiating, and rightfully so. Much has been said about how Georgia was able to beat a really, really good Texas team while looking totally ineffective on offense half the time. And much chatter has surrounded the fact that UGA is now back in the driver’s seat for an SEC Championship game appearance. But lost in all of this is what coach Kirby Smart accomplished with that win.

Smart, as head coach at Georgia, is now (100-17) in his career. That makes him the fastest to 100 wins at a single SEC school all-time. It took Nick Saban, the greatest head coach of his era, and maybe of all time, 118 games to accomplish this. It took Steve Spurrier 120 games, Phillip Fulmer 124 games, Bear Bryant 126 games and Les Miles 126 games.

All of those gentlemen have a couple of things in common: They all have national championships, and all are Hall of Fame coaches. It is a list that goes beyond elite and exclusive. In fact, you can make a case that we may not see this again for a very long time.

The Bulldogs’ win in Austin on Saturday was a big deal. It served as a reset for SEC and college football playoff expectations and projections. It showed that Georgia can win in dominating fashion, even when the offense isn’t working well, and it showed that Tennessee fans aren’t the only “UT” fans out there who like throwing things when they see something they don’t like.

Let’s not, however, lose sight of what coach Smart just accomplished “between the hedges.” Before we turn our furrowed gaze to the loathsome Florida Gators, let’s take the bye week to pause and acknowledge what coach Smart has done for the “G.”

Remember, coach Nick Saban had already won a national championship at LSU and was a head coach at Michigan State and in the NFL before making his mark at Alabama. The intricacies of being the CEO of a big-time program was already in his playbook.

This is Kirby Smart’s one and only tenure as a head coach. He had never done this before. What he has done is special. What he has done is historic. What he has done has never been done before. And he isn’t finished.