How much better has Georgia played in rematches with Kirby Smart? A lot.

Kirby Smart can dismiss the influence that playing a team for a second time in the same season can have on the rematch, but the evidence would like a chance to speak.

In Smart’s 10 seasons with the Bulldogs, Georgia has played a team twice in the same season four times. And it isn’t just that the Bulldogs, after losing three of the four initial meetings, have won all four rematches — each time with much higher stakes on the table.

It’s more about how the games played out.

It doesn’t mean that Ole Miss — which Georgia will play in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal Jan. 1 at the Sugar Bowl in a rematch — doesn’t stand a chance against the Georgia football machine. But let’s just say that coach Pete Golding, the replacement for the recently relocated Lane Kiffin, has a lot of work to do.

A taste of what the numbers show from Georgia’s games against Auburn in 2017, Alabama in 2021, Texas in 2024 and Alabama again this season:

After being outscored 120-92 in the first games, the Bulldogs turned the tables by a 111-51 count in the rematches, an 88-point swing.

The most extreme reversal was the first. After getting waxed by Auburn 40-17 in the 2017 regular season, Georgia hammered the Tigers 28-7 in the SEC title game three weeks later.

“They did a great job of bringing a lot of different looks, switching up the coverages, blitzes, fronts — I mean, everything,” Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham said after the game. “They did a great job tonight of switching it up and causing a little bit of havoc.”

The turnover margin went from 7-4 in the opposition’s favor to 8-3 in Georgia’s in the rematches.

The four opponents averaged a combined 5.7 yards per play the first time against the Bulldogs defense — which would rank about 70th in FBS — before falling off to 4.5 in the rematch, which would be almost last.

The collected performance of the quarterbacks that Georgia faced (Stidham of Auburn, Alabama’s Bryce Young, Texas’ Quinn Ewers and Alabama’s Ty Simpson) compared with their Bulldogs counterparts (Jake Fromm, Stetson Bennett, Carson Beck and Gunner Stockton) draws a stunning contrast.

Opposing quarterbacks’ combined passer rating fell from 146.1 to 109.9, while Georgia’s combined rating rose from 112.5 to 146.7 — a flip so similar as to be mind-boggling.

The opponents’ touchdowns to interceptions went from 10-to-1 in the first game to 4-to-5 in the rematch. Georgia’s, meanwhile, flipped from 5-to-5 in the first to 7-to-1.

The prizes of the four rematches won by Georgia: three SEC championships (2017, 2024 and 2025) and the 2021 national championship.

For whatever it’s worth, Smart is 2-7 against Alabama and both wins were same-season rematches.

That’s only an eight-game sample. Still, it forms a compelling argument that rematches are an area where Smart further sets himself apart as the best in his field, an ability that would have obvious bearing on the Sugar Bowl.

Consider this: Not only did Georgia defeat Ole Miss in the first game, but Smart’s staff has been able to home in on the Rebels since the 12-team bracket was announced Dec. 7 while Ole Miss had to get ready to play Tulane in the first round Saturday. Further, Golding has been in the head coach seat for only a few weeks since Kiffin’s departure for LSU.

Asked Monday at a media availability about his process for handling rematches, Smart called it an overrated factor.

“I think it’s how you play that defines what the outcome of the game is,” Smart said.

And, to be fair, maybe Smart, his staff and team don’t do anything significantly different from their counterparts.

It’s not like Georgia’s rematch opponents just copied and pasted their game plans from the first game and were left slack-jawed when the Bulldogs adjusted theirs.

But Smart and his staff just do it better, as they do a lot of things.

It’s well within reason to think that a coach renowned for his attention to detail, uncanny memory, tactical acumen and motivational skill, among other traits, would offer his team a significant advantage when playing a team for the second time in the same season.

The conquests might agree.

Young after the 2021 CFP championship game, when he threw two interceptions for the only time in his Heisman Trophy season, explaining that Georgia “switched some things up” and went against their defensive tendencies: “And I have to process that faster, just make the right play for the team better than I did tonight. So they changed some things, and I wasn’t able to execute.”

Simpson after playing possibly his worst game of the season in this year’s SEC title game: “Credit to Georgia’s defense, right? They had a good plan. That’s pretty much simple as that.”

Even Smart, after that 28-7 SEC title game thrashing, offered a glimpse into how he prepared the defense after the regular-season loss to the Crimson Tide in Athens.