Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart shared his frustration about the College Football Playoff Selection Committee on Friday. The Bulldogs are coming off an ugly loss to Ole Miss and now are the last team out of the twelve-team playoff. No.12 Georgia is now 7-2 with the best strength of schedule in the country, which has included brutal road trips to Tuscaloosa, Austin, and Oxford. Smart harped on that fact in his rant about his team’s current standing on the Pat McAfee Show.
“I don’t know how much the committee values it… they’re looking at the game on the TV. They’re not at the stadium, hearing the crowd noise, knowing the atmosphere that you’re playing in. It’s very different when you play on the road in our league. I think that compared to some other leagues, it’s tougher.”
Georgia football has zero room for error if it wants to make the playoff
The Georgia football head coach makes a very compelling point. The Bulldogs have been shown no mercy with their slate of games. The losses at No. 10 Alabama and No. 11 Ole Miss are nothing to scoff at, and Georgia has dominant wins at No. 3 Texas and against No. 20 Clemson.
Teams ranked in front of the Bulldogs include Miami, which lost on Saturday to unranked Georgia Tech and has one tight win against a top-25 team. The Hurricanes also have the 38th-best strength of schedule in the country. Nevertheless, Miami is three spots ahead of the Bulldogs.
Another team in front of Georgia, No. 8 Notre Dame, has a strength of schedule way below Miami’s and lost at home to Northern Illinois. Meanwhile, programs like Indiana and BYU recently struggled against unranked opponents and moved up three spots, showcasing the committee’s inconsistencies
Overall, two things can be true. Kirby Smart’s frustration makes complete sense in this situation. Georgia football must fix its flaws to jump back into the top twelve.
Related Georgia Football NewsArticle continues below
The good news is that the Bulldogs can still reach the College Football Playoff and win a third national championship in four years. But, to accomplish this, Saturday against the No. 7 Tennesee Volunteers is a must-win. Following that rivalry clash, Georgia football has two highly winnable games against Massachusetts and Georgia Tech.
Winning against the Volunteers in Athens will not be easy for the Bulldogs. Quarterback Carson Beck cannot struggle like he has over the past few weeks. The Volunteers have a top-five scoring defense in the entire FBS, giving up only 12.6 yards per game. No team has scored 20 or more points against Tennessee this season. Because of this fact, the Bulldogs will need a huge game from Beck to overcome a lackluster running offense that only averaged 124.1 yards a contest.
Georgia football has shown its potential on several occasions this season. While there have been inconsistencies along the way, this team’s ceiling is still as high as any other program in the country.