With ESPN recently releasing their rankings of the top coaches in NCAA Football going into the 2025/26 season, Georgia’s Kirby Smart topped the charts after being voted as the top coach in College Football by 11 out of 12 voters.
Going into his tenth season, Smart has won back-to-back NCAA championships, starting the Georgia Powerhouse Era that saw him claim the program’s 15th SEC title last season after a thriller against Texas Tech. Georgia ultimately crashed out of the playoffs after a Sugar Bowl loss to Notre Dame.
With their season ending last year against the Fighting Irish, it seemed fitting to revisit the game that started Kirby Smart’s era of College Football knowledge. Georgia Fan Dean Legge revisited the iconic “Notre Dame Game” on the recent episode of his show.
Georgia Insider Explains The History Behind The Moment That ‘Began It All’ For Georgia Under Kirby Smart
Dean Legge, who covers all things Bulldogs Football on his channel “UGA Football on Dawg Post,” recently revisited one of the most infamous games in Georgia history.
“If you’re trying to pinpoint the exact moment when Kirby Smart started his dominance at Georgia, I think you have to all the way back to early in the 2017 season, of course, I’m talking about the Notre Dame game, one of the biggest regular season games in Notre Dame history.” Legge began, before explaining the buildup to the iconic contest,” Legge said,
He added, “This was a game that was circled by everyone, and that was the moment that Georgia could turn into a national power, to a program where you started to say, yeah, this team can do it.”
At that point, Georgia was coming off an 8-5 2016 season that included home losses to Vanderbilt and rival Georgia Tech. Senior safety J.R. Reed claimed that not everyone on that team bought into Kirby Smart’s vision.
“Now you gotta remember, Kirby Smart’s first year, 2016, it wasn’t great, they lost to Georgia Tech, they lost to Vanderbilt, Florida, and losing on a Hail Mary to Tennessee, it was ugly, but halfway expected.”
“Going into 2017, however, people were saying Georgia should be really good this season, Nick Chubb is coming back, year two of Jacob Eason, Sophomore season, lot of experienced players on defence, everyone thought it was gonna be a good year,” the Georgia insider explained.
“The whole world was watching this game, everybody was tuned into Notre Dame vs Georgia, everyone had this game circled, the whole College Football world.”
“First of all, you had the emergence of Roquan Smith in that game. Roquan was really good in 2016, he obviously was the best linebacker in College Football, but this was his true breakout game, this was a different level, he absolutely dominated Notre Dame.” Legge began, as he dived into all of the iconic moments that led to the Bulldogs’ narrow victory.
Roquan Smith recorded seven tackles and one sack in that game and would later go on to be vital to Georgia’s success. Smith was the Defensive MVP of the Rose Bowl that year and the overall MVP in the SEC Championship game, recording 13 tackles and a sack.
“But this was a tough, earned victory. Georgia had a lot of trouble picking up yards and sustaining drives, Nick Chubb had 63 yards; it wasn’t a great game for Jake Fromm” The Georgia fan explained, with the game mostly being won on the ground, with Nick Chubb rushing for 63 yards, and Sony Michell rushing for over 70.
“Jake Fromm did have one touchdown pass, but Terry Godwin basically made that, leaping up, one handed, getting the foot down, one of the best catches you’ll ever see and a top 5 catch in Georgia history, because if they lose that game, who knows what happens, they end up losing to Auburn later in the season, and maybe even miss the playoffs.”
“I remember walking out of that stadium at three in the morning, because that was a late ball game, and thinking, this team could end up going all the way, that game reinforced to the fans that things are going to be different.”
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The game ended up being decided by one of the most iconic moments in the history of Bulldogs football. Rodrigo Blankenship hit a 30-yard field goal with three minutes to go, followed by Bellamy blind-siding the quarterback, while Lorenzo Carter recovered the fumble with 1:27 left.
Ultimately, Georgia would lose the national championship that year in overtime but would win back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022, a payoff from the infamous Notre Dame game that started the Kirby Smart era of dominance.
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