The No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs (12-1) will play the winner of No. 11 Tulane and No. 6 Ole Miss on January 1 in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. This game marks Kirby Smart’s fourth appearance in the Sugar Bowl and his fifth appearance in the College Football Playoff. Over the last six games, Georgia’s defense has proven to be a unit that no one in the playoffs wants to see.
In the Bulldogs’ first six games (excluding FCS foe Austin Peay), they allowed 2.04 points per drive, allowed offenses to gain 43.5% of the available yardage, gave up 4.98 drive yards per play, and allowed an overall offensive drive success of 35.2% (according to bcftoys’ defensive game ratings). The worst of these games was against Ole Miss, where Georgia allowed the Rebels to score 4.38 points per drive, gain 63.2% of their available yards, average 6.13 drive yards per play, and have a drive success rate of 62.5%.
Over the last six games, the Junkyard Dawg defense has given up an average of 1.14 points per drive, 31.4% of available yardage, 4.36 drive yards per play, and a drive success rate of 23.5%. By comparison, the 2022 Georgia defense gave up an average of 1.29 points per drive, 35.8% of available yards, 4.94 drive yards per play, and a drive success rate of 29.7%.
Here’s a visual illustration of the week-to-week improvement:
Part of this late-season surge is Georgia’s younger players growing up over the season. Coming into this season, Smart talked about this being his youngest roster to date.
Smart told the Associated Press, “First- and second-year players make up 54% of the team.”
Those players have played 13 games at the collegiate level and are now in their second and third years, respectively. One such player who really exemplifies this is Ellis Robinson, who struggled mightily at the beginning of the season but has become a lockdown cornerback down the stretch.
Georgia’s defense is peaking at just the right time and will give the Dawgs a real chance to win their third National Championship in five years.
