College Football

No. 2 Georgia tramples Vanderbilt as Dawgs build case as nation's top team

Updated Sep. 25, 2021 7:44 p.m. ET

Under coach Kirby Smart, the Georgia Bulldogs have built a bit of a mixed reputation – always nationally relevant, never national champions.

In the early stages of this season, however, the No. 2-ranked Bulldogs have a different feel about them.

No, we shouldn’t read too much into their 62-0 trampling of traditionally hapless Vanderbilt on Saturday, but when you zoom back and take a look at the larger picture, there are some signs that suggest this 4-0 Georgia squad is a little bit different, and perhaps a little bit better, than teams past.

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On the whole, the Dawgs look like one of the most dominant teams in the country. The evidence starts with defense, defense and more defense. Take a look:

Georgia has allowed just one touchdown this season – that came in garbage time of a 40-13 rout of South Carolina.
The Bulldogs held Clemson – Clemson! – to three points in a 10-3 win in their season opener.
In that Clemson game, they held quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei – considered a Heisman candidate by many at the time – to 19-for-37 passing (51.4%) for 178 yards and sacked him seven times.
Through four games, they’re outscoring their opponents 166-23, which roughly averages out to 42-6.
The 5.8 PPG they are allowing ranked No. 2 in the nation at the conclusion of their game.

Against Vanderbilt, Georgia nearly had more points (62) than the Commodores had yards (77), even though Smart subbed out his starters early. They also held Vandy to 24 yards passing.

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"We say nobody in our end zone," Georgia linebacker Nolan Smith said. "That’s the standard. That follows for everybody."

But what about the offense? The Clemson game aside, that side of the ball hasn’t been too bad, either.

Quarterback JT Daniels showed some signs last season, passing for more than 300 yards three times – and 299 once – in his first campaign since recovering from an ACL tear. He hasn’t lit things up this season, passing for only 567 yards with a 5-2 touchdown/interception ratio.

Then again, he hasn’t had to light it up – not with that defense. And Daniels has been steady, completing 73.8% of his passes and compiling a passer rating of 143.8. On third down this season, he’s been practically unstoppable, completing 88.9% of his passes (16-for-18).

On Saturday against Vanderbilt, Daniels was 9-for-10 for 121 yards and a pair of touchdowns as Georgia ran out to a 35-0 first-quarter lead. He didn't play the rest of the game.

Despite all of this, if you listen hard enough you can still hear the whispers about Georgia’s past.

Isn’t this the team that often looks great until it gets out of the SEC East?

Isn’t this the team that was soundly thrashed by Joe Burrow’s LSU Tigers in the 2019 SEC Championship Game?

Isn’t this the team that couldn't finish the job in the 2018 National Championship Game against Alabama? And isn’t Smart 0-3 against Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide?

That’s all true.

Still, the Bulldogs' sheer dominance through four games brings a different feel this time around. The statistics look like something you'd see in a video game set on cheat mode, and the eye test looks pretty good, too.

"You got to be elite all the time," Smart said after Saturday’s game. "You can’t be some of the time. It’s not how elite teams play, and our guys embrace that and I was proud of them."

Will this be the year Georgia goes to the next level? A big matchup against Arkansas next Saturday could certainly be a big indicator one way or the other.