As Kirby Smart began his meticulous rebuild of the Georgia Bulldogs football program, Smart first got his alma mater back in an historically familiar position: controlling the border rivalry against Florida formerly known as the ‘World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.’
Suffice to say, former Florida Gators head man Dan Mullen probably needed a cold beverage after he heard Smart’s zinger on the heels of Georgia’s 43-20 dismantling of Billy Napier’s second-year Florida team.
On social media before the game, Mullen had predicted a Florida win. The Gators did score first for an 7-0 lead; it was 36-7 Georgia a couple quarters later.
Smart had thoughts after the game.
"I don't see it or hear it, but I know it's out there,” Smart said of Mullen’s prediction. “Somebody texted me before the game, all these people predicting we're not going to win today.
“I'm just like, ‘Golly, where's that coming from? He's supposed to be my friend.' (Mullen) didn't like to recruit, though."
Smart, meanwhile, has made recruiting the lifeblood of the Georgia program. And even after losing double-digit players to the NFL during their back-to-back College Football Playoff title runs of 2021-22, the Bulldogs again are No. 1 – in large part to their depth in recruiting.
DEION NEEDS DEPTH … AND KILLER INSTINCT
Colorado still might find its way to bowl eligibility. Deion Sanders’s first-year herd of Buffaloes are 4-4 and have four games left to play.
But their rapid-fire, undefeated start has wilted in losing four of their last five games, and the Buffaloes are setting all the wrong records for allowing quarterback sacks.
Colorado’s 42 sacks allowed through eight games are the most among all Power-5 teams.
“Depth. Not only depth, [but] killer instinct, want, desire, will [and] athleticism,” Coach Prime said of how things must get fixed up front. “The hardest thing to acquire is linemen. So, when you get a good one, you hardly see linemen jump to a different school.
“I think we have some guys that it’s going to be a good little seasoning, but overall we just don’t have the fight or the passion to do what we want to do. I’m a little bit biased because I’m (quarterback Shedeur Sanders’s) father, but I believe we have the best quarterback in the country. I don ’t think any other quarterback can put up with ours, standing and [delivering] like ours always do week in and week out and take a beating like he’s taking.
“We got to address that scheme was [and] functionally with what we have.”
HEUP TRAIN
Tennessee bounced back after its come-from-ahead loss at Alabama to notch a key road victory at Kentucky.
The Vols continued to lean not on their aerial attack but instead on a ground attack that’s proved to be among the best in the SEC and all of college football.
As third-year coach Josh Heupel moved to 3-0 against Mark Stoops and Kentucky, his team constructed a double-digit lead in a game that it led wire-to-wire.
The Vols also got solid special teams play, and Charles Campbell’s four field goals proved the difference.
“Whoever's on the field at the end, you've got to go finish it,” Heupel said. “Win, lose, draw. It's always three phases together. You're always competing for each other. And the fact that one phase of the game can help lift up another, that's what special teams do, when they got a really good culture inside of it.”
KARRYING KANSAS UPWARD
The Lance Leipold Revival Project in Lawrence, Kansas, is among the most impressive in all of modern college football.
And after Saturday’s win against previously-unbeaten Oklahoma, the first for a Jayhawks football team at home against a top-10 foe in nearly 40 years, Leipold was refreshingly candid about what this all means to the Kansas program – which is going bowling for the second time in as many years.
“It’s huge. I mean, it's your job,” Leipold said. “You guys have been here every day. We've sat here for a long time just trying to keep it even. You can do those things, not talk about it.
“But you know what? It's probably time for me to start talking about how proud I am about how far this program has come. It really has in a short time. And that has to do with the players, especially the ones that stuck around to believe in the direction. Our staff, support staff, administration, all those things that allow you to try to make progress like we have and to become bowl eligible.”
Kansas got its sixth win during its 2022 season against then-No. 18 Oklahoma State to secure its postseason path, and it upended the then-No. 6 Sooners this time around.
“Last year, we beat a rated team to get the six wins,” Leipold recalled. “To do it again this year, I think, is extra special. But we got a lot of football to play. And now we've got to continue to take steps, and you know that's the way I am. I'll probably talk more about the things we didn't do quite as clean as we want, but at this moment though, so proud of them and happy for them.
“As I say, we ask a lot. OK, and it's not easy, but under the stage and everything today and weather included, it's a big win.”
JEFF BROHM HATES LOSING
Louisville opened this month with a dominant win against Notre Dame and quickly secured bowl eligibility under the first-year reign of former favorite son Jeff Brohm.
Then, the Cardinals had a hiccup and lost at Pittsburgh. That preceded both a needed bye week and also a torturous wait for the Cardinals.
They responded this past weekend with a dominant win against nationally ranked Duke.
“Very proud of our team today, we rose to the challenge,” Brohm said. “It is never fun to go into a bye week with a tough loss. I hate it, and our players hate it and I think in order to be a good winner, you have to really hate losing. So, it was a rough two weeks, but we put in the work, we worked hard to improve some things that have hurt us and I thought we made tremendous strides.
“So, to come out here in front of great fans, support, great turnout who were all into the game. We were really efficient on offense, [wanted to] be really physical up front, run the football at them and take advantage of what the defense was giving us. We set the tone early with two touchdowns early, had a 14-point lead against a team that doesn’t like to be down like that -- allowed our defense to go out there and dominate.”