One week after being upset by Ole Miss and suffering their second loss of the season, Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs posted a convincing 31-17 win over Tennessee Saturday night.
The victory moved Georgia to 8-2 on the season and kept the Bulldogs’ College Football Playoff hopes alive. Last week, Georgia was ranked 12th in the updated College Football Playoff top 25, but was the first team out of the 12-team bracket because No. 13 Boise State would have a spot as the highest-rated Group of Five team.
On Saturday morning, while speaking on ESPN’s College GameDay, Smart made it a point to say his team is “not playing the College Football Playoff committee.” He took aim at the committee again following the Bulldogs’ primetime win.
“I don’t know what they’re looking for,” Smart said in his postgame press conference, via USA TODAY. “I really don’t. I wish they could really define the criteria. I wish they could do the eyeball test where they come down here and look at the people we’re playing against and look at them. And you can’t see that stuff on TV. So I don’t know what they look for, but that’s for somebody else to decide.”
“They’ll probably look at this week and say, well, we just played against one of the best defenses in the country. And we went for 453 on them, and it could have been more,” Smart added. “So it’s just the tale of each week. And we’re trying to be the cumulative, whole, really good quality team. And not be on this emotional roller coaster that’s controlled by people in a room somewhere that may not understand football like we do as coaches. We as coaches look at people and say, what can we do better? How do we get better? I respect their decision. I respect their opinion but it’s different in our league.”
As Wolken noted, the committee does actually include a number of former head coaches, in addition to some prominent administrators. Smart isn’t wrong though about trying not to get too bogged down in the minutiae of the rankings.
Georgia’s most important task is taking care of business on the field next week against UMass and Georgia Tech. Then, the Bulldogs have to just let the chips fall, as the old saying goes.
The next round of College Football Playoff rankings will be released on Tuesday evening, while the new AP and Coaches Polls will be out later today.
Related: ESPN’s Computer Releases New Top 25 Rankings Sunday