Here’s where Georgia fell in the latest AP Top 25 poll

ATHENS — Not that Kirby Smart cares, but Georgia is no longer the No. 1 team in the country.

The Bulldogs dropped out of the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25 rankings for Week 8, moving down to No. 5. Georgia is No. 4 in this week’s Coaches Poll.

The fall was precipitated by a stunning home loss to the unranked Auburn Tigers.

It marked the first time since the 2019 season that Georgia lost to an unranked team. The Bulldogs had won 53 straight games against such teams.

After the game, Smart did his best to try and push the team past its disappointing defeat.

“I’m really only worried about my team,” Smart said. “I really think the rankings don’t matter, you know? The only thing that’s gonna matter is what you do next week. And next week is just as hard a game as this week. And the next week is just as hard a game as this week. There is nowhere to run and hide in this league. Nowhere. And so you just gotta find ways to get better and try to win the next moment.”

Georgia was far from the only top team to lose Saturday, as five of the previous top seven teams in the Coaches Poll also lost. Notre Dame and Alabama lost to ranked teams on the road, while Georgia and Texas were upended by unranked teams at home.

Miami is the new No. 1 team, followed by BYU at No. 2. Ohio State is up to No. 3. Notre Dame fell to No. 4.

As for what is next for Georgia, the Bulldogs get a much-needed week off. The Bulldogs are a banged-up football team, as it was without star safety KJ Bolden on Saturday. Gunner Stockton, Dwight Phillips Jr. and Elijah Griffin all left Saturday’s game at different points, though all did return to action.

“We’ve gotta get some guys healthy and back,” Smart said. “We had about eight or nine guys that really didn’t practice this week, in terms of getting into the game, coming out of the last game. And we gotta improve, we can’t turn the ball over, we can’t have undisciplined penalties. But we’re really good in some areas. We got a good defense, we got a good offense, but we gotta get better. I need more players to play winning football.”