Georgia finished the 2024 season with the No. 51 overall offense, with 405.4 yards per game being the lowest since 2016, Kirby Smart’s first season at Georgia. The 6.03 yards per play were also the lowest in Smart’s tenure. One would have to go back to the 90s to find a Georgia rushing attack with less production than the Dawgs had in 2024, with its 124.4 rushing yards per game ranking No. 102 overall and 50 yards fewer than any other season under Smart. The defense did not fare much better. Smart’s defense had reeled off seven seasons in a row of fielding a top 15 defense, with the 2016 squad coming in at No. 16 overall. Georgia ranked No. 30 overall in 2024, allowing 329.9 yards per game, two yards more per game than it allowed in 2016.
And yet, Georgia won the 2024 SEC Championship, earning the No. 2 seed in the College Football Playoff. Since Smart’s arrival in Athens, the Dawgs have set a standard of National Championships to be measured by each year. Speaking with CBSSports’ Josh Pate on the Josh Pate College Football Show, Smart was asked what he will remember when looking back at the 2024 season.
“Best coaching job we’ve done by far, 100%,” Smart said. “We were not as good as some of the years previous, and we had twice the schedule some of the years previous. So to the naysayers, to the onlookers, to the people that don’t know, I respect everybody’s opinion. You can have an opinion. You can do what you want with it. I know football, and I know the level of schedule we had to play, and I know the roster we did it with, and I know the injuries we had.”
Georgia played the No. 1 ranked schedule in 2024, facing two top 5 opponents on the road, five ranked opponents total, and going 3-0 vs opponents that made the CFP. The Dawgs took on Texas twice, once in Austin with the Longhorns ranked No. 1, and once in Atlanta with the Longhorns ranked No. 2, emerging victorious in both matchups. Ultimately, Georgia lost in the quarterfinal round to Notre Dame, making it two years in a row that the Dawgs missed the CFP Semifinal.
“By far and away, the best job that our staff and our organization has done, easily, to go through the gauntlet we went through, number one, to get into the SEC championship was an accomplishment with that schedule,” Smart said. “Because they don’t make the SEC schedule like they do the NCAA basketball pool where they say the quality of wins you have. They don’t do that. They just do it sheerly off who are the top two teams in the conference, but we were able to do that.
Then we were able to win that game, okay, which was in and of itself an accomplishment, and then we went on and played a really good Notre Dame team, and didn’t play our best game in that opportunity, and had some faulty special teams plays, and they beat us, but all in all, I was very pleased with what we got out of our team, and it was below the standard statistically in a lot of areas, but a lot of that had to do with the schedule we played.”
