2022 Post-Season Guide
coaching staff
KIRBY SMART Head Football Coach
• SEVENTH SEASON AS GEORGIA COACH • 79-15 RECORD • 2021 NATIONAL CHAMPION • 2017 NATIONAL RUNNER-UP • 2017, 2022 SEC CHAMPIONS • 5-TIME SEC EASTERN DIVISION CHAMPS • 2017 GEORGE MUNGER AWARD (NAT’L. COACH OF THE YEAR) • TWO-TIME SEC COACH OF THE YEAR • TWO BUTKUS AWARD WINNERS • OUTLAND TROPHY WINNER • CHUCK BEDNARIK AWARD WINNER • THORPE AWARD WINNER • ONE LOU GROZA AWARD WINNER • MACKEY AWARD WINNER • THIRTEEN 1ST-TEAM ALL-AMERICANS • ELEVEN 1ST ROUND NFL DRAFT PICKS • FORTY-FIVE NFL DRAFT PICKS OVERALL
T
he 2021 College Football Playoff national championship, a 2018 CFP title game appearance, 2022 CFP semi-final game, Southeastern Conference Championships in 2017 and 2022, five SEC Eastern Division titles, 79 wins and six bowl victories are more than respectable rewards over a six-year period. That’s what Georgia got when it hired former Georgia player and Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart to head the program in December of 2015. His impact, along with a stellar coaching staff, players, and a passionate fan base has put Georgia on the national stage seven years running. The Bulldogs enter the College Football Playoff having won 31 of their last 32 games. 2022 - Georgia captured its second SEC championship of the Smart era in dominant fashion. The Bulldogs went 12-0 in the regular season and soundly defeated LSU in the SEC title game, earning a No. 1 seed in the final CFP rankings. 2021 - His 2021 team became UGA’s first national champion since 1980, the first since 1982 to go undefeated in the SEC regular season, a No. 1 national ranking by all the major polls and the first ever to win 14 games. It marked the fifth straight
team to finish the regular season ranked in the top ten of the College Football Playoff rankings. The team set 21 school records, highlighted by the nation’s topranked defense. The third-ranked Bulldogs defeated #2 Michigan, 34-11, in the Capital One Orange Bowl in Miami and then No. 1 Alabama, 33-18, in the championship game in Indianapolis. The senior class also set the mark for most career wins by going 45-8. After the regular season, Smart was named SEC Coach of the Year for the second time in five years. Georgia’s championship season enjoyed a fitting exclamation mark at the 2022 NFL Draft. The Bulldogs set a Draft record with 15 players taken, including five defenders in the first round, led by the first overall selection, junior Travon Walker. 2020 - The 2020 Bulldogs became Smart’s fourth consecutive team to earn a New Year’s Six bowl game appearance. With a Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl victory over undefeated Cincinnati on Jan. 1, 2021, the Bulldog seniors tied the record for the most wins by one class in school history (44). 2019 - Smart’s 2019 Bulldogs became the first team in school history to win 11 or more games for a third straight season. Georgia defeated three teams
in the final Top 15 CFP ranking — Notre Dame, Florida, and Auburn — and finished fourth in the final polls. The Bulldogs capped their season with a dominant victory over Baylor in the Allstate Sugar Bowl game. 2018 -- Georgia in 2018 posted an 11-1 regular season record, a second straight SEC Eastern Division title, and a ranking as high as number four in the CFP poll. Georgia landed in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2019—the program’s tenth all-time appearance in the New Orleans classic. 2017 -- Smart’s second season in 2017 was a special one, with an 11-1 regular-season record, an SEC title, a win over Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl Game (CFP semifinal) and advancement into the CFP National Championship Game. It was the first conference title since 2005 for the Red and Black. Both Smart and his players reaped the bounty of their banner 2017 season. He was named George Munger National Coach of the Year by the Maxwell Football Club, SEC Coach of the Year by the Associated Press and SEC Coaches, and the Regional Coach of the Year by the AFCA. Roquan Smith earned first-team All-America honors and the Dick
Smart’s Year-by-Year Coaching Record Year School Position
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
38
Valdosta State Valdosta State Florida State Florida State LSU Georgia Miami (NFL) Alabama Alabama Alabama Alabama Alabama Alabama Alabama Alabama Alabama Georgia Georgia Georgia Georgia Georgia Georgia Georgia
georgia
Asst. Coach/DBs Def. Coordinator Grad. Assistant Grad. Assistant Asst. Coach/DBs Asst. Coach/RBs Asst. Coach/Safeties Asst. HC/DBs Def. Coord./ILBs Def. Coord./ILBs Def. Coord./ILBs Def. Coord./ILBs Def. Coord./ILBs Def. Coord./ILBs Asst. HC/Safeties Def. Coord./ILBs Head Coach Head Coach Head Coach Head Coach Head Coach Head Coach Head Coach
Overall Conf. Final Final Record Record AP Rank CFP Rank 10-2 12-1 9-5 10-3 9-3 10-3 6-10 7-6 12-2 14-0 10-3 12-1 13-1 11-2 12-2 14-1 8-5 13-2 11-3 12-2 8-2 14-1 13-0
9-0 --9-0 --7-1 --7-1 11th 6-2 16th 6-2 10th ----4-4 NR 8-0 6th 8-0 1st 5-3 10th 7-1 1st 7-1 1st 7-1 7th 7-1 4th 7-1 1st 4-4 NR 7-1 2nd 7-1 t7th 7-1 4th 7-2 7th 8-0 1st 8-0
----------------------------1st 2nd --3rd 5th 5th 9th 3rd 1st
Bowl
----Sugar Orange Capital One Sugar --Independence Sugar BCS Champ. Game Capital One BCS Champ. Game BCS Champ. Game Sugar Sugar Cotton, CFP Champ. Liberty Rose, CFP Champ. Sugar Sugar Peach Orange, CFP Champ. CFA Peach
2021 National Champions
Season Note
Reached 1st Rnd. Division II Playoffs Reached 2nd Rnd. Division II Playoffs Lost to UGA in Sugar Bowl ACC Champions Lost to Iowa in Capital One Bowl SEC Champions 4th in AFC Eastern Division Def. Colorado in Independence Bowl SEC West Champions National Champs, SEC Champs Def. Michigan State in Capital One Bowl National Champs, Def. LSU in Champ. Game National Champs, SEC Champs Lost to Oklahoma in Allstate Sugar Bowl SEC Champions National Champs, SEC Champs Def. TCU in Autozone Liberty Bowl SEC Champs, Reached CFP Nat’l. Champ. Game SEC East Champions SEC East Champs; Def. Baylor in Allstate Sugar Bowl Def. Cincinnati in CFA Peach Bowl Def. Alabama in CFP National Championship Game SEC Champions @GeorgiaFootball
