Kirby Smart has had his way with Georgian football's biggest rivals

Georgia football is coming off a loss, meaning what went wrong in the last game is being dissected by fans, media and coaches.

The offensive line. The pass defense. The running game. Quarterback.

There’s enough debt to go around the 28-10 upset by Ole Miss, but there’s another game approaching Saturday with a prime-time national spotlight against Tennessee, which is ranked No. 4 in the coaches’ poll.

Not only does Georgia-Tennessee have major playoff implications and the battle for a spot in the SEC Championship, but it is also a heated rivalry.

That usually meant good things for the Bulldogs under Kirby Smart.

Smart was 28-2 over the past eight seasons as a coach against Georgia’s top rivals: Florida, Georgia Tech, Auburn and Tennessee.

“No school has had as many traditional rivals over the years as Georgia,” said former Georgia public address announcer Jeff Dantzler. “It can definitely take a toll on the fan base because there are so many teams you ‘have to’ beat in a given year.”

Dantzler grew up in Statesboro in southeast Georgia as a huge Bulldog fan. He keeps that record and knows it by heart.

“That and the championships mean so much to so many people,” Dantzler said. “If you’re in a place like LaGrange or Columbus, there’s a lot of Auburn people that you see every day. As you get around the Florida border you’ll see a lot of blue and orange, especially as you start to talk more toward south-central Georgia. …When Tech starts playing well, I always say they come out of the woodwork. I see a lot more flags and stickers when they start playing well.”

Dominating Georgia’s biggest rivals is something that was arguably lost during the back-to-back national championship run in 2021 and 2022 and chasing a three-peat last year when the Bulldogs went 13-1 but missed the playoffs.

Smart said during this year’s Auburn Week that “the historic nature of this game is very personal,” to him and the coaches who played in that game.

As for his players, he said at the time: “I don’t think these kids know that much. They don’t watch football, most of them. They don’t even play it, but they don’t watch it. Don’t know. You ask them, ‘Who is your favorite NFL team?’ Don’t know. They have more, more things to do. They were given more attention options. They’ll be on their phones, looking at social media and doing whatever.

Linebacker Jalon Walker, a North Carolina native, said this week of Tennessee: “I think there’s a rivalry, you say, for this game, but for us it’s just another SEC football game. We play great SEC schools all year round, so it’s another opportunity for us to go out and play football.”

Georgia offensive guard Dylan Fairchild said rivalry games “may bring a little more into the fans and the environment, but to us it’s a game. We take every match as seriously as the last and the next.”

Smart’s overall record against the four rivals is 29-5 with losses to Tennessee, Florida and Georgia Tech in 2016 in his first season, Auburn in 2017 and Florida in 2020.

During Mark Richt’s time as Georgia’s coach from 2001-2015, he went 37-23 against Tennessee, Florida, Auburn and Georgia Tech.

Richt had a winning record against Georgia Tech (13-2), Auburn (10-5) and Tennessee (9-6), but won 5-10 against Florida.

The Gators went 18-3 against Georgia from 1990 to 2010, which included the tenures of Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer.

“For me as a kid, from ’83 to ’90, Pat Dye and Auburn beat us seven out of eight,” Dantzler said. “Obviously, Tennessee had that nine-game winning streak against Georgia (1989 and 1992-99). Thank God I wasn’t alive during the 1950s drought against Tech.”

Yes, Smart is just 1-6 against Alabama. Georgia and Alabama may seem like a rivalry because they have been powerful programs over the past decade, but before this year they had played just once in the regular season with Smart as Georgia’s coach.

Smart has benefited from competitive programs during the coaching transition.

The Volunteers went from Butch Jones to Jeremy Pruitt to Josh Heupel. The Tigers moved on from Gus Malzahn, had Bryan Harsin for two seasons and now Hugh Freeze. Florida had Jim McElwain, Dan Mullen and Billy Napier. Georgia Tech went from Paul Johnson to Geoff Collins to Brent Key.

Georgia has won seven in a row against Tennessee – the longest streak in series history – eight in a row against Auburn, six in a row against Georgia Tech and seven of the last eight against Florida.

Dantzler said, “Those are dreams come true things that Kirby delivers.”