Georgia is flawed. Good news: So is rest of SEC

KNOXVILLE, Tn. – Georgia coach Kirby Smart, moments after his team’s preposterous 44-41 overtime win over Tennessee, remarked that he “almost” felt he needed to apologize because his team shouldn’t have won the game.

He didn’t add an apology to those who experienced spiked blood pressure levels throughout the afternoon, but his fan base has grown a bit more accustomed to thrillers these days.

Georgia might no longer overwhelm opponents immediately after stepping off the bus, yet it continues to win. And it keeps winning games that leave the audience wondering, “How?”

Remember when it beat Georgia Tech in eight overtimes last November? Then followed with an overtime win against Texas in the SEC Championship? And now Saturday’s prodigious heroics?

The word “culture” gets overused in sports because it’s too broad a term. But by any definition, Georgia has a “winning culture.” Perhaps that’s a separator in today’s SEC. It was a year ago, after all.

Georgia was a flawed SEC champion last season. It could be a flawed SEC champion again in a few months.

“We’re nowhere near where we need to be,” Smart said Saturday. “We’re a long way from being there, but boy, we’ve got some kids that aren’t afraid to fight.”

More answers are coming: The Bulldogs are off next weekend, allowing them to address some ailments before hosting Alabama on Sept. 27. That will be an educational Saturday for both programs.

But even imperfect, Georgia continuously shows spectators everything they could want to see. The Bulldogs will win the blowouts; that’s going to be the majority of their results against lesser foes. But they’ve continued to come through in the uglier games, too. From 2021-23, Georgia won three one-score games. From 2024-25, it’s already won four.

Everyone is more vulnerable in the new college football climate, especially in the SEC. It’d be stunning if anyone escaped conference play unscathed. It’d be far less surprising if the SEC Championship involved a pair of two-loss teams.

The days of the Nick Sabans and Smarts hording talent have passed. This Georgia team could be good. It could be great relative to its current peers. But it isn’t imposing like the teams of past seasons.

Neither is Alabama, which was pushed around and frankly clowned in Tallahassee a couple of weeks ago. Neither is Texas, the sexy pick that’s looked anything but as quarterback Arch Manning experiences growing pains no different than anyone else.

Florida was another popular playoff pick, but it couldn’t defeat the fifth-biggest brand in its own state last week. Then there’s Texas A&M, which has yet to prove it can consistently compete with the upper class. South Carolina was touted but hasn’t shown it’s anything menacing.

The Volunteers might not become SEC champs, but they look much better than many expected and have a manageable schedule. Perhaps they find their way into the discussion.

“It’s still early in the season, but (Georgia) is a great program we took all the way to the wire,” Vols quarterback Joey Aguilar said. “It shows us that we have to dig a little more.”

Oklahoma and LSU have looked the closest to elite-tier teams, but there’s a long way to go for both. The playing field leveled out tremendously a season ago. It’s only continued in 2025.

The future SEC champion is anyone’s guess. This conference, now lacking Saban’s steadiness, is mayhem. Smart always references potential upsets each week; rest assured, many contenders will be undone by shocking results, just like a year ago.