Georgia is no longer sitting atop the Coaches Poll.
After a stunning home loss to unranked Auburn, the Bulldogs slid to No. 4 in the Week 8 rankings, ending their run at No. 1 and snapping a remarkable streak against unranked opponents. It was Georgia’s first loss to an unranked team since the 2019 season, and the Bulldogs had won 53 straight games against those kinds of opponents before Saturday.
Kirby Smart didn’t sound interested in dwelling on the rankings afterward. He kept the focus squarely on what comes next.
“I’m really only worried about my team,” Smart said. “I really think the rankings don’t matter, you know?
The only thing that’s gonna matter is what you do next week. And next week is just as hard a game as this week.
And the next week is just as hard a game as this week. There is nowhere to run and hide in this league.
Nowhere. And so you just gotta find ways to get better and try to win the next moment.”
Georgia wasn’t the only heavyweight to take a hit on Saturday. Five of the previous top seven teams in the Coaches Poll lost, with Notre Dame and Alabama falling to ranked road opponents, while Georgia and Texas were beaten at home by unranked teams.
The shakeup put Miami in the No. 1 spot, with Ohio State climbing to No. 2 and BYU moving up to No. 3.
Texas Tech checks in at No. 5.
Now Georgia gets a bye week, and it comes at a good time. The Bulldogs are dealing with injuries and were without star safety KJ Bolden on Saturday. Gunner Stockton, Dwight Phillips Jr. and Elijah Griffin all left the game at different points, though each returned.
“We’ve gotta get some guys healthy and back,” Smart said. “We had about eight or nine guys that really didn’t practice this week, in terms of getting into the game, coming out of the last game.
And we gotta improve, we can’t turn the ball over, we can’t have undisciplined penalties. But we’re really good in some areas.
We got a good defense, we got a good offense, but we gotta get better. I need more players to play winning football.”
The schedule doesn’t let up after the open date. Georgia’s next three opponents are all ranked right now, starting with No.
24 Florida on Oct. 31.
Then comes a trip to No. 7 Ole Miss, before the Bulldogs return home to face No.
21 Missouri on Nov. 14.
Coaches Poll Top 25 rankings for Week 8: Miami
Ohio State BYU
Georgia Texas Tech
Indiana Ole Miss
Notre Dame Utah
UCLA Tennessee
Kentucky Alabama
Iowa USC
Houston LSU
Texas Wake Forest
SMU Missouri
Boise Northwestern
Florida Oregon
In Other News...
Tennessee Just Gave Vols Fans New Ammo Against Alabama
Week 7 delivered one of those Saturdays that reshapes the conversation around the SEC, and Tennessee had plenty to do with it. The Vols backed up a strong performance from running back DeSean Bishop with a defense that made life miserable for Alabama, giving their fans a fresh reason to revisit the rivalry and point to the Crimson Tides flaws after a game that felt more like a statement than a one-off upset.
It was also part of a broader shake-up across college football, with top-ranked Georgia and Notre Dame both going down in a chaotic slate. BYU knocked off Notre Dame without its star running back, Texas slipped again in a loss to Florida under Steve Sarkisian, and Oklahoma State continued to struggle, but Tennessees win stood out for the way it was built: physical, opportunistic and hard to dismiss no matter how the rest of the season plays out. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Just Shook Up The Rankings In A Way Fans Had To See
Week 7 turned the AP Top 25 upside down in a way college football rarely sees, with five of the top eight teams losing on the same day for the first time in the polls 90-year history. Auburns win over No. 1 Georgia was the headline grabber for Bulldogs fans to absorb, but it was part of a bigger wave of chaos that also included BYU taking down No. 2 Notre Dame.
The shakeup sent Miami to No. 1 for the first time since 2002, with BYU climbing to No. 2 and Ohio State landing at No. 3. For Georgia, the bigger picture is less about one bad Saturday than the way quickly a season can change when the teams around you start tumbling too, and the rankings now reflect just how much instability is baked into the race ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Is Suddenly At The Center Of An SEC Debate
The SEC conversation has gotten louder this week, and Georgia is right in the middle of it after another rough stretch for the leagues biggest names. Recent losses by top teams such as Georgia and Texas have fueled the familiar debate over whether the conference is as deep and dominant as it has been billed, while fans and observers continue to argue over how much weight to give one conferences bruising schedule.
Dan Wolken pushed back on the idea that the SEC has somehow become ordinary, arguing the league is still punishingly difficult from week to week. From Georgias perspective, that only adds to the scrutiny, because every stumble by a contender seems to become evidence in someone elses argument about the conference, and the latest round of reactions has left plenty of room for the debate to keep going. [Read more 🡒]