Inside Georgia’s exceptional 29-game winning streak

• Chris Low, ESPN Senior WriterNov 26, 2023, 08:40 AM ET Close College football
• reporter Signed up with ESPN.com in 2007
• Graduate of the University of Tennessee

Kirby Smart knows winning. He also knows his SEC history, which is why he generated Sylvester Croom to speak to Georgia’s team during preseason camp in August.The Bulldogs carved out a slice of history Saturday night, a history Croom belonged of more than 40 years earlier, by breaking among the most hallowed records for an SEC group with a 31-23 triumph over Georgia Tech, extending the Bulldogs’ winning streak to 29 straight games. Not given that the Bear Bryant-coached Alabama teams of the late 1970s has actually the SEC seen a more powerful winning machine than the one Smart has assembled at Georgia.Even after back-to-back national championships, Smart has actually been a master at keeping his Bulldogs hungry and inspired. So when considering who he might bring in to talk with his team in the summer, he instantly thought about Croom.Croom has actually seen the

SEC from almost every angle, consisting of as an assistant coach under Bryant on the Alabama groups that won 28 straight games from 1978 to 1980. Alabama also won 28 in a row from 1991 to 1993 under Gene Stallings, however later on needed to forfeit 8 regular-season victories from the 1993 season due to the fact that of NCAA sanctions.Croom’s message to Georgia’s team this previous summer season was brief and sweet– and also prophetic.”You don’t think of the one behind you or the one ahead of you,” Croom told Georgia’s players and coaches

.”You just keep stacking them up, keep difficult each other to get better and make the next practice more extreme and more competitive than the last one. It’s one practice and one week at a time.”That’s how Coach Bryant approached whatever. Nobody ever attempted to mention anything about records or streaks. Hell, we anticipated to

win every game since that’s the way we prepared, and Kirby has brought that very same method to Georgia.”It’s an approach that has caused the Bulldogs winning 24 of the 29 games in the streak by double digits and a method that Croom says is insatiable.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated”No

matter how much you win, it’s never ever enough,”said Croom, who won a national title as a player and assistant coach at Alabama and became the SEC’s

very first Black head

football coach

at Mississippi State in 2004. Alabama won 27 straight games versus SEC opponents while Croom was on Bryant’s personnel. The co-captains on the 1980 Alabama group– Significant Ogilvie and Randy Scott– had actually never ever lost an SEC game till

the Tide’s 28-game streak came to an end in 1980 versus Mississippi State in a 6-3 upset.Croom informed the Bulldogs this preseason that when you start to take winning for given, you become your most susceptible.” We had a stretch there where we would have won 4 straight championship games,”Croom said of his time at Alabama.

“We must have won it in 1977 when we were No. 2 and got passed over by Notre Dame. And after that in 1980, we had injuries at quarterback, had four turnovers in the loss to Mississippi State, which was one of our best defensive teams of the decade. “You can’t return. It’s what you perform in the moment, and that’s the method Georgia has actually played under Kirby. “Croom still has the notes from a talk Bryant had with the Alabama team in 1980, weeks before the Tide had their streak snapped by Mississippi State.

“Coach Bryant told them that it was humanity, particularly when we ‘d won as much as we had, to not be willing to continue doing the things it requires to regularly win,”Croom stated.”He was really clear that if we didn’t get some things rectified, we were going to get beat.

And he was right.”Clearly, the Bulldogs have followed Croom’s words as they continue their march towards history.Notes and numbers on the streak Georgia pass receiver Dominic Lovett celebrates after his goal catch versus Georgia Tech. Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports – Georgia’s record 29-game winning streak comes throughout an age when the SEC hasnever ever been better and when player motion has never been much easier, making it much more hard to develop and keep depth.The SEC has produced the previous 4 national champions(three different teams )and 13 of the previous 17 national champs. There were 6 SEC teams in the current College Football Playoff rankings. There were six SEC teams in the final CFP rankings in 2022 and 2021. – There are just four streaks equal to or longer than Georgia’s over the past 50 years amongst FBS teams. Oklahoma has the longest winning streak in college football history at 47 in a row from 1953 to 1957. Miami: 34( 2000 to 2002)Clemson: 29 (2018-19) Florida State: 29( 2012 to 2014)Miami: 29 (1990 1992 )- Twenty-five members of the Dawgs who have actually played during the streak have actually been chosen in the NFL draft. The 25 players selected in the 2022 and 2023 drafts are the most for one group in a two-year span in the common

draft period (1966 to present). Those draftees consist of 8 first-rounders, and the Dawgs ’15 players prepared in 2022 set a modern-day record dating to 1994, when the draft was reduced to seven rounds.Allstate Playoff Predictor How will Saturday’s leading games affect the College Football Playoff chase after? What are the existing chances for the top 4? The Allstate Playoff Predictor has the answers. Check back weekly as the odds are upgraded following that week’s games. In addition, ESPN

‘s Mel Kiper has seven players from this year’s team ranked among the leading 10 at their particular positions for the 2024 draft– which does not include standout underclassmen such as Malaki Starks, Mykel Williams and Earnest Greene. – Throughout the streak, Georgia

is 11-0 versus AP nationally ranked groups and 6-0 against groups ranked in the leading 10. The Bulldogs have scored 30 or more points in all however among those 11 games against ranked challengers. The streak includes nine nonconference games and five versus groups outside the Power 5. – Georgia has actually outscored challengers by an average of 39.9 to 14.8. Here is a breakdown of Georgia’s point totals during the streak: Scored less than 20 points: 1 Scored 21-29: 4 Scored 31-39: 9 Scored 40-49: 10 Scored 50 +: 5 Permitted 0-9 points: 8 Enabled 10-19: 10 Enabled 20-29: 9 Allowed 30 +: 2 – Georgia has actually not tracked in

16 games during the streak. Of the 13 comeback wins, the Dawgs have actually routed in the

2nd half just 6 times. Georgia has trailed in its last 6 games, however just two times beyond the first quarter
(vs. Missouri on Nov. 4 and against Georgia Tech on Saturday night ).
Their biggest deficit throughout the streak came in 2015’s CFP semifinal
versus Ohio State, when the Buckeyes led

38-24 into the fourth quarter and Georgia didn’t take the lead for excellent until the final minute.The only other games in which the Bulldogs routed in the 4th quarter were at Missouri on Oct. 1, 2022, when Georgia took its very first lead of the game with 4:03 to play, and the championship game game against Alabama on

Jan. 10, 2022, when UGA went ahead 19-18 with 8:09 to play and went on to win 33-18. This season’s closest call came at Auburn in Week 5. The Tigers connected ball game 20-20 with a basket with 6:21 left in the fourth quarter before Georgia scored the winning touchdown on a 40-yard Carson Beck-to-Brock Bowers touchdown with 2:52 staying. – Georgia lost the 2021 SEC championship game to Alabama, which ended a 16-game winning streak. So the win over Georgia Tech was their 45th in 46 games, returning to Nov. 8,

2020. – The last time Georgia lost a game at home was Oct. 12, 2019, a 20-17 loss in double overtime to South Carolina.