CBS Sports analyst says Georgia has ‘slipped’, 2026 season will be a test for Kirby Smart

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CBS Sports analyst says Georgia has ‘slipped’, 2026 season will be a test for Kirby Smart

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flipside

CKS hasn't slipped near as far as the CBS Network.

Doggone

Every year is a test. Leave it to the press to conjure up controversy. But this is a non-starter. The NCAA right now is in flux. The portal and NIL have caused an earthquake. May take a few years to sort that out. CFB is now mostly about money and going to the "next level". It has also lost some of its uniqueness and attractiveness. Will be surprising if any "dynasties" last very long. Kirby loves kids and football. He's a keeper.

DawgfromILM

I hope "the best" is still Kirby's standard.

I hope Bobo wants to make champions, not just men of character—you can do both, if you are a national championship finalist OC and he's yet to prove that he is. This is a great opportunity to prove that he is.

CamdenDawg912

Kirby Smart is the greatest head coach this program has had in my lifetime. His record against Florida, Tennessee and Auburn is special. He has earned the right for patience and trust as he builds the roster and navigates this new era of CFB.
As a FAN, I wish we were more explosive on the offensive side of the ball. I don’t see a roster that would scare anyone as far as the ability to put up points against anyone. I think the defense has the ability to take a big step forward and be really special, but I always feel confident on that side of the ball. It feels like the expectation for performance is different offense vs defense. Defense “must create Havoc and be physical”. Offense “don’t turn the ball over or do anything ****”. Wish we had a WR room that was considered even top 10 nationally.

jdatl3

Camden - I agree. What Kirby has done is nothing less than amazing. However, the game has changed with NIL and the portal. Kirby was built to out-recruit you. Now we live in a world where recruiting won't get you all the way there. It will be a challenge for every coach, because you are juggling recruiting, transfers, and coaching. I don't know how this new world will affect Kirby. The Saban disciples were all made to demand excellence, and some kids don't want hard coaching or difficult adjustments. It's encouraging that one of Saban's disciples just won the NC. I think the national media is questioning whether Kirby's mode of operation works in the new era.

railroadtrack1

I think the defense will be very good out of the gate this year as opposed to the previous two. Sacovie- White ain't taking a behind the line pass to the house, or even very far like Branch IMO. The passing game will have evolve to the point that the down the seams plays, and the mid range back shoulders, ect. are not after thoughts. Gunner will either learn to stay in, and step up in the pocket and make plays or he won't. The running game must continue to improve, and with the new coach Rauscher that may well come. With these improvements the Dawgs would be the team to beat, without them same old story, or worse.

Tswood1959

The thing with Georgia is being consistent. Yes Bama beat us in the first half but Georgia should have won that game but we put a beat down on them in the SECCG. Ole Miss we beat in regular season and then lose to them in the playoffs. That game could have been different if we had a few more playmakers on defense. Mike can call a great game one week and the next game it’s like he doesn’t have a clue. I hope KS has gotten stuck in complacency with just winning a SEC title. He doesn’t seem to have the fire he did before winning the nattys back to back. No matter what I’ll always be a Dawg fan win or lose. Hey I was here through Ray Goff so I’ll take it 😂. Sometimes we get a negative feeling but deep down we all bleed Red and Black. At least we are not Carolina 🥴

KBP

You're not the best unless you win the Natty. We haven't been the best since 2022. Being the best is a year to year proposition and any expectation beyond that leads to disappointment more so than anything else. Just get into the playoffs and let's see what happens. No team is entitled to win regardless of it's prior success nor what the media says. GO DAWGS!

randomsportsfan

@railroadtrack1 People can like or dislike Mark Richt holdovers Stacy Searels and Mike Bobo. That is fair. What is unfair is blaming them for what the players do and do not do. And in the 2024 and 2025 seasons, I saw plenty of times where Searels and the OLs that hecoached did their jobs. But often it wasn't enough because:

1. UGA's scheme does not have fullbacks. They run a 3 WR offense. That means that the WRs have to be good enough to either force the safeties to provide help deep or force the defense into zone coverage. If your WRs are average or worse, defenses are going to cover them man-to-man and commit everyone else - the safeties and LBs - to stopping the run and attacking the line of scrimmage. Football is not golf or tennis. It is a team game and if one area of the team is as glaringly deficient as the UGA WRs were, it creates trouble for other areas. The last 2 years, and in 2024 especially, UGA's OL always had to block extra guys because defenses are able to ignore a group of WRs who were never going to beat them. Take the Notre Dame playoff loss. Arian Smith had a single catch in 63 offensive plays. Cash Jones was #2 in receiving yards … with 37. Dillon Bell had more receptions than all the other WRs combined … for 33 yards. This allowed ND to blitz extra guys and put them in the box every single play. Think about it: if Searels was so bad at coaching and developing OLs, why are 4 guys from the 2024 OL on NFL rosters? 3 of them started as rookies? One of whom is a rookie starter for a Super Bowl team? Ohio State's OL wasn't better than UGA's in 2024. Defenses having to deal with Ohio State's 3 future 1st round picks at WR just made it more effective.
2. UGA does not recruit blocking TEs. Yes, Brock Bowers is a future college football hall of famer and will be an NFL one if the Raiders ever get a good QB (or he can just leave in free agency). But the next 270 pound defensive player that Bowers pancakes to set the edge on a running play will be his first. That isn't his game. It also isn't the game of Delp, Luckie or pretty much any other TE that UGA recruits. So even if you say "so what if UGA plays a 3 WR set, so does everyone." The difference is most other teams start blocking TEs who can set the edge at the line of scrimmage and block LBs downfield on running plays. While some of the backup TEs under Smart have been good blockers, you can actually say that UGA effectively runs a 4 WR offense with the TE as another slot WR. When said TEs are actually fast and quick enough to get open over the middle against safeties like Bowers, it helps the running game because they have to take a safety out of the box and cover him. When you have TEs that can be covered with LBs like Delp and Luckie then teams can stay in their base defense. Their also not being blocking TEs makes it a net negative. Before anyone asks, yes, other teams play blocking TEs. Ohio State does because their WRs are so good their TEs don't need to catch the ball much. Saban when he was at Bama? Same. Saban actually moved a LB to TE, and while the guy never distinguished himself for catching passes, he run blocks (at both TE and FB) in the NFL to this day.
3. All right, so no fullback. WRs that defenses single cover. TEs that don't block. That needs RBs with big time ability. They need to be able to take it the distance whenever they get an inch of daylight and especially if they are able to reach the sideline or get to the next level through the middle. And when there isn't daylight, they need to be able to break tackles, make people miss or at least move the pile consistently. Great. When was the last time UGA had one of those? Well first, look at the stats. UGA hasn't had a tailback average average 70 yards per game since Swift. UGA does RB by committee? Fine: James Cook was UGA's last RB who got regular playing time that had a ypc worth writing home about. Which is why … Swift and Cook were UGA's last RBs to get drafted higher than the 4th and to become regular NFL players. Nate Frazier? More of the same. 67 yards a game. 5.5 yards per carry. Rarely breaks long runs when he has clear daylight in front of him even against lesser competition. And at 205 lbs, he isn't going to move the pile like Todd Gurley (225), Nick Chubb (230) or Knowshon Moreno did (220) did. Except Gurley, Chubb and even Moreno were quicker with more breakaway speed despite being bigger backs. And yes, defenses know this. Georgia Tech gameplanned for a UGA offense that didn't have long running plays. (Of course, they should have spent that effort gameplanning against Pitt so they would have made the ACC title game and playoff, but another story for another day.)

So, you are asking the OL to cover for a 3 WR/receiving TE scheme where the WRs are collectively below average, the TEs are good but not 1st/2nd round pick great and the RBs aren't future NFL starters either. In 2023 the RBs weren't even good enough to be SEC starters (600 yards at barely 5 ypc) despite 3 rookie NFL OL starters blocking for them. Instead of blaming the OL coach, why not demand better players at other positions? And if the HC insists on lowballing the WR position, at the very least ditching the slot WR in favor of playing a fullback. If UGA had a fullback lead blocking, he would clear out the "last guy" who always tackles Frazier at the second level - that it doesn't take much contact to make Frazier to go down in the open field doesn't help - to turn the 7 or 8 yard runs that he gets consistently into more 20-30 yard runs that he gets almost never. Yes, better talent at RB would help, UGA switching from a lead RB (or lead 2 RBs) offense under Richt and Chaney to an RB by committee approach that nukes their touches and stats means that elite RBs aren't going to be coming to Athens anymore either. Yes, RB by committee "works" … it was what Bobby Bowden used at FSU for ages, even when he actually did have big time RBs. But the Bobby Bowden system worked because Bowden always had WRs good enough to demand double coverage. WRs who sometimes had almost as many receiving yards in a single game than Dillon Bell and London Humphreys had all last season.

Instead of endlessly scapegoating UGA's offensive coaches, which UGA fans have done every single year except 2021 and 2022- and yes there was even some griping in 2021 during the season, don't pretend otherwise - how about putting the pressure on the head coach to deliver better players for these offensive coaches to work with? The future NFL talent at WR, RB and QB that every other national title contender but Georgia has year in and year out? If your position is that Bobo and company need to win with subpar players, at least admit that the job of the UGA coaching staff is to win with guys who would be backups at best on the teams that UGA is trying to beat. And NOT the future NFL players like Pickens, Cook, Bowers, Washington, Mitchell, Burton etc. that Monken had 2020-2022.

1SICemDAWGS1

A lot of coaches, and teams would love to "slip" and still win 11 regular season games, and their conference championship game. The media is the reason coaches, players,and teams are branded elite, then when they dont meet those expectations set by the media, they have suddenly lost their coaching experience, playing ability, or team focus, and are in a downward spiral after 1 season lol NIL, and the transfer portal has brought parity we've never seen before in college football. So get accustomed to seeing teams win National titles that weren't blue blood programs in the past. The coach who uses the portal best, as Cignetti did this season, will probably field the best team(s) going forward. Who in a million years would've thought Vandy would be a legitimate playoff contender so late in the season? Not me..I agree with a lot of comments I've read about HS talent in the future having to start at smaller schools, gain a year or 2 of experience, then transfer to a school in a power conference to finish their careers..GoDAWGS!

navydawg

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/827452#Comment_827452

So your Actually saying that the Dawgs football program did Really, Really Well in 2025. Going 12-2, winning the SEC, with a First Year starting QB and subpar WRs, TEs, and RBs. The Only regular season loss to Bama very early in the season by a whopping 3 points.

The Sugar Bowl loss to Ole Miss Officially by 5 points. But everybody and their cousin knew the Safety was a desperation play. So even though not Official I look at it realistically as only a 3 point loss.

Pretty good season with all those subpar players at key positions !! Not to mention that for a large part of the year the O Line was like a carousel at the circus !! Oh and most of the. “News” articles only reference Gunner’s 24 TDs ( with only 5 INTs) they usually Don’t mention the TEN TDs and being Third on the list for Rushing yds. for a Total of 34 TDs. Through 14 games. Beck only had 33 TDs total through 15 games.

FWIW I’m not to big on placing All or even Most of the blame on any one person. I admit I was frustrated with Searls earlier in the season but I came on here Several times and ate crow. Bobo like any human makes mistakes but it’s been shown clearly that the Dawgs Can and Have won plenty of games under his play calling. I Fully agree with you it’s a Team sport. When one player or even unit is struggling it’s on others to Help lift them up. That’s what great teams do.

navydawg

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/827454#Comment_827454

A big AMEN to All of your comments !! Go Dawgs !!