ATHENS, Ga. — A perfect regular season isn't good enough for the reigning national champions.
Stetson Bennett threw two touchdown passes and No. 1 Georgia completed back-to-back undefeated regular seasons for the first time in school history by overcoming a slow start to beat Georgia Tech 37-14 on Saturday.
"It is special," Bennett said of the undefeated regular season, "but we didn't enter this season trying to go 12-0. We want to go 15-0."
Georgia was down 7-0 early at home to its Peach State rival from the Atlantic Coast Conference and led only 10-7 at halftime. Then the Bulldogs overpowered the Yellow Jackets (5-7) with their running game to score 37 unanswered points and notch their fifth consecutive win in the rivalry known as Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate.
The Bulldogs are in good position to remain atop the College Football Playoff rankings entering next Saturday's Southeastern Conference championship game against LSU at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The day after that, the CFP selection committee will announce which four teams are in the bracket.
Kenny McIntosh and Kendall Milton ran for touchdowns as Georgia outrushed Tech 264-40.
"Every drive we ran the ball, the running backs stepped up and answered the bell," McIntosh said.
The slow start was frustrating for Bennett, but the senior couldn't complain about the finish in his final game at Sanford Stadium.
"I really wasn't happy with the way we started today, but we still scored 37," Bennett said. "... We ran the ball really well today."
Mistakes in the third quarter hurt the Jackets' chance at spoiling the Bulldogs' history-making day. After a low snap, punter David Shanahan was tackled at the Tech 17. That set up Bennett's second touchdown pass, a 1-yarder to tight end Brock Bowers on a fourth-down play.
Tech freshman running back Jamie Felix's fumble was recovered by Georgia's Robert Beal on the Jackets' next play, setting up a 36-yard field goal by Jack Podlesny.
"We made some mistakes in the second half and couldn't sustain some drives," Tech interim coach Brent Key said. "... We can't have those in big games like that, especially when you know going into it that it's going to be a field possession game and they have an explosive offense."
Georgia pulled away in the fourth quarter, when Bennett's 83-yard completion to McIntosh — the Bulldogs' longest pass of the season — set up McIntosh's 2-yard run to the end zone. Milton added a 44-yard touchdown run.
Tech became the first team to score a first-quarter touchdown against the Bulldogs this season. Zach Gibson completed a 34-yard pass to Nate McCollum on a fourth-and-9 play to the Georgia 7, and backup quarterback Taisun Phommachanh's 7-yard run capped the touchdown drive.
The Bulldogs took a 10-7 lead on Bennett's 5-yard pass to Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint in the second quarter. It was Georgia's only pass of a drive that included a 45-yard run by McIntosh.
A week after an underwhelming offensive performance in a 16-6 win at Kentucky, the Bulldogs ultimately demonstrated resilience. McIntosh showed his versatility by posting game highs of 86 rushing yards and 91 receiving yards on two catches, and Bennett avoided mistakes while completing 10 of 18 passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns and adding 21 yards on five carries.
"As the game went on, we started to wear down a little bit," Key said. "... Credit to Georgia and their football team. I didn't see any quit on our team."
The Jackets fell short in their bid to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2018, but they were 4-4 with Key after Geoff Collins was fired early in his fourth season at Tech and continued to show progress Saturday. One year ago, the team's third consecutive three-win season ended with a 45-0 loss to Georgia.
After beating two AP Top 25 teams — Pittsburgh and North Carolina — on the road under Key, Tech was competitive for at least one half against the Bulldogs. Gibson, the third player to start at quarterback for the Jackets this season, showed good poise against the nation's top scoring defense, completing 19 of 35 passes for 191 yards.
The next game for each team is at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, although the Bulldogs will be playing at the home of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons much sooner as they appear in the SEC title game for the fifth time in six years. The Jackets will open their 2023 season at the same venue with an ACC matchup against Louisville.
Honoring Dooley
The key piece of Smart's quick wardrobe change before his postgame news conference was a tie often worn in games by former longtime Bulldogs coach Vince Dooley, who died on Oct. 28 at the age of 90. After a celebration of life for Dooley on Friday night at Stegeman Coliseum, Smart was given the tie by Dooley's family.
"He did it right for so many games," Smart said of Dooley, whose record was 201-77-10 as Georgia's coach from 1964 to 1988, a stretch that included six SEC titles and the 1980 national championship.
Smart said he didn't wear the Dooley tribute attire — including white shirt and sweater without his normal visor — during the game because he didn't want to take attention away from his seniors.