Georgia’s latest win gave Kirby Smart another clean benchmark in his run with the Bulldogs, and the numbers keep stacking up fast.
After the fifth game of the 2026 season against Vanderbilt, Smart reached his 122nd victory at Georgia in his 143rd game on the sideline. That puts him at 122-21 overall, a winning percentage of 0.8531.
At the same point in their Georgia careers, the comparison looks like this: Vince Dooley’s 143rd game ended with a Bulldogs win over Floriduh in the eighth game of the 1976 season, and he stood at 96-42-5 with a 0.6888 winning percentage. Mark Richt was 106-37, good for 0.7413, after a loss to LSU in the 2011 SECCG.
Through 143 games, Smart is 16 wins ahead of Richt and 26 ahead of Dooley. In other words, he’s still tracking right alongside the two winningest coaches in Georgia football history.
The win itself also came with some familiar game-day scenery. The author arrived early enough to get a spot near the Redcoats, after missing out on the preferred Dawg Walk location, and made a stop near the endzone corner closest to the UGA crypts. There, the group watched receivers work on catching the ball in the back corner and getting a foot down - something that showed up at least once during the game.
The day also had a family feel to it. Last year’s home-opener plus one, the author’s eldest great-nephew, was back again, now 15, with a permit and a freshman year underway.
He spent part of the day studying the game closely, looking for ways to sharpen his own play. Another family member, the youngest nephew, had previously come to the Texas game after surviving an ICU visit tied to vaping, and the family had talked about another return trip.
This time, he chose Vanderbilt after first being asked about Mizzou.
There was also a brief third-quarter meet-up with a former colleague who was attending with her family. And there’s even talk of another visit during Fall Break, when the author and the great-nephew might go explore the cemetery and the marker that bears their name, depending on transportation plans.
But the point of the whole exercise is simple: Georgia won, and that means another Winning Smart Victory Post gets its place in the record.
In Other News...
Kirby Smart Seemed To Send A Message In Georgias Vanderbilt Win
Jared Curtis did not suit up in Vanderbilts recent meeting with Georgia after the quarterback, who had flipped his commitment from the Bulldogs to the Commodores last year, was injured. Georgia handled the game the way a team trying to stay in the thick of the national title race needed to, while Vanderbilt came away with its season outlook looking far less secure than the one in Athens.
Afterward, Curtis made his way toward Kirby Smart, setting up a moment that drew attention for what happened as much as what did not. Smarts body language suggested he was not eager to linger, and the interaction felt like the sort of understated sideline scene that can say plenty without anyone having to say much at all. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Left Vanderbilt With Two Concerns Alabama Will Test
Georgia left Nashville with a win and a cleaner record, but not a clean bill of health on the details that usually travel with them into bigger games. The Bulldogs beat Vanderbilt 38-14 to move to 5-0, and Carson Beck turned in another efficient day by completing 25 of 32 passes for 295 yards and three touchdowns. Even so, the outing had the kind of uneven stretches Georgia cannot ignore when the schedule sharpens, especially with the ground game not finding much rhythm.
The defense also had its lapses, most notably on third downs, and Alabama is the sort of opponent that tends to expose those cracks quickly. Georgia did settle in after halftime and looked more like itself down the stretch, but next weekend brings a far sterner test of whether those second-half corrections can carry over. For a team that has mostly handled business through September, the trip to face Alabama now feels less like a checkpoint and more like a revealing exam. [Read more 🡒]
Kirby Smart Is Already Pressing Georgia On One Concern Before Alabama
Vanderbilt kept things interesting for a half before Georgia pulled away for a 38-14 win, scoring the final 17 points to close it out. Clark Lea had reasons to point to some progress on the Commodores side, especially in protection and the run game, while Kirby Smart came away talking about the kind of things he likes to see from his own team this time of year: conditioning, execution and the steadier finish that can matter when the schedule tightens.
Smarts focus now turns quickly to Alabama, and it sounds like he is already sharpening one concern before that matchup arrives. Even after a comfortable win, Georgia is still looking to clean up areas that can become costly against a better opponent, and Smart did not hide that there is more work to do before the next test. [Read more 🡒]