5-at-10: Stetson Bennett, Kirby Smart, Dogs everywhere get last, best bark

Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett (13) kisses the championship trophy after the national championship NCAA College Football Playoff game against TCU, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023, in Inglewood, Calif. Georgia won 65-7. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett (13) kisses the championship trophy after the national championship NCAA College Football Playoff game against TCU, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023, in Inglewood, Calif. Georgia won 65-7. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Red (and black) letter day

Holy buckets of beat downs.

That was tragic. Well, tragic unless you followed the Plays of the Day -- which suggested last week over 62 and Monday pegged Georgia minus-3 in the first quarter and minus-13.5 for the game.

Check, check, check and make that check payable to the 5-at-10.

Well, part of me couldn't help but fall back into the old newspaper days of spit-balling an 80-point headline for Georgia's 65-7 humiliation of TCU.

Dog Pounding came to mind but I think that has been used. Real Bullies did too. My mind settled on "Frog Choker" but TCU's inabilities were not the story.

This was all about the Red and Black. (Side admission: I truly wish Lewis Grizzard were alive to see and write about Georgia being the beast of college football. Man, that would be fun, even for those of us who are not die-heard Georgia fans.)

(Side note about the side admission: I was happy for my UGA friends here -- Dawg747, Bearddawg, Mr. and Mrs. Alejandro and many others -- as well as my family and my wife, a proud UGA grad. But I am not looking forward to the gravitational pull dominance creates and the "lifelong" Georgia fans about to come out of the woodwork who may or may not have been cheering for Alabama for the last few years and was cheering for Florida before that and, well, as long as the SEC wins, well, they are happy. Nope, not looking forward to that at all.)

Where were we? Oh yeah, the stories from last night. OK, try these on in any particular order.

-- Stetson Bennett is now the GOAT Bulldog player ever. Not the best, heck, he may not be on a top-20 list of best/most talented football players to ever come through Athens. But 29-1 in his final two years with two Nattys and two title game MVPs as well as a Heisman invite? Yeah, he's the Red-and-Black Tebow folks.

-- Kirby Smart has passed Wally Butts and Vince Dooley as the greatest coach in school history. In an era that is infinitely more competitive -- Dooley's career would not have made it to the Herschel years in today's impatient college football landscape -- Smart has moved side-by-side with the best to ever do it. And at what point of Butts' or Dooley's careers did anyone ever say or could have ever said that.

-- Last year's Georgia team has a strong claim as the most talented college football team ever. Think about this: Georgia lost 15 players to the NFL draft, including five defensive players in the first round. So there was all of that talent from a team that won a natty. And behind them were the guys that anchored the No. 1 defense in the country that went unbeaten and won the natty. This is like that Miami 2001-level of talent.

-- Georgia is not going anywhere any time soon, friends. Sure, this may motivate Lord Saban to a new gear, but he's in his 70s. Kirby just got natty No. 2 at 47, and here's doubting he'll ever fill out another resume for as long as he wears a whistle. The construction has been completed; the destruction will continue.

Too early Top 25

So we do this every Tuesday morning after the national title game. It also means we move the NFL power poll a day because a) too many lists; b) it would take the copy editors like two days to read all of my prose and c) both a and b.

We do this with the caveat that there still is a signing day and the draft declaration process as well as 11th-hour transfer portaling.

So, let's do like Braveheart trying to fight the heavy horse cavalry of the English and make a pole.

1 Georgia. OK, Brock Bowers will be back. The receiving corps will be the best in the country with returning talent and incoming transfers. Also of note: Kirby has been recruiting at a pretty good clip of late. The Dawgs are not going anywhere anytime soon.

2 Michigan. The Wolverines will be better later this year than they were in 2022, and that belief was cemented when star running back Blake Corum announced he was returning to Ann Arbor for his senior season. The biggest decision looming in the sport will not be a signing-day declaration or a portaling position from a coveted player. It will be whether Jim Harbaugh takes his khakis to the NFL.

3 THE Ohio State. There is no bigger player decision in terms of shaping the 2023 expectations than whether CJ Stroud returns to Columbus. If he does -- and with those returning receivers, including Marvin Harrison Jr. -- THE Ohio State will be right there as 1B behind THE Georgia Bulldogs in every preseason projection.

4 LSU. Want to know the second-year coach who will have a Josh Heupel-like ascent to playoff contention? Start in Red Stick with Brian Kelly. And yes, I have already bought my "Jayden is Ja-Man" T-shirt for LSU QB Jayden Daniels, who will be a Heisman finalist if he stays healthy next year.

5 Alabama. Finishing fifth in the country being a disappointment may be the greatest statement of the standard the Dark Lord has built in Tuscaloosa. (Side note: How Alabama is higher than Tennessee when the two played and we all remember who won, is puzzling to me. If you wanted to make the argument about playoff-inclusion without a healthy Hendon Hooker, OK. But the final regular-season poll has to weigh head-to-head no?) As for the Tide, replacing two of the best players at their position under Saban in Bryce Young and Will Anderson will be a daunting task. That said, not unlike Kirby, Nick has been acquiring talent at a pretty good clip as well.

6-thru-10 -- USC, FSU, Washington, Penn State and Oregon.

Speaking of possible names on the Heisman invite list, the group above will be welcoming back some familiar names at the games most important on-field position. USC has Caleb Williams, who won the 2022 Heisman; FSU's return to the top of the ACC hinges on dual-threat QB Jordan Travis; Washington's Michael Penix Jr. -- the Indiana transfer who is going to go from NIL to AARP after next season -- had arguably the best season of anyone not named Caleb west of the Mississippi -- and Oregon's Bo Nix is back for his 14th college campaign.

11-thru-15 -- Clemson, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Texas and Kansas State.

Clemson has recruited too well for too long to take a huge leap back, and it will be interesting to see how much of the blame of the malaise of late will fall at the feet of D.J. Whosehishelmet. This may be a bit lofty for UT, but the portal has been kind, and I think Joe Milton has NFL tools. Speaking of the portal, this may be low for the Irish, who landed Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman, who is the biggest difference-maker in the portal. Texas and K-State will be the best teams in a Big 12 that will be decidedly down.

16-thru-20 -- Tulane, Utah, TCU, Ole Miss, Oregon State.

This could be low for Tulane, which will be better with quarterback Michael Pratt and coach Willie Fritz returning. Utah will always be competitive as long as Kyle Wittingham is on the sideline. Ole Miss will score; will it defend, and moreover will the Rebels fan base grow tired of Lane Kiffin if the results do not meet the bluster in 2023? And Clemson transfer D.J. Uiagalelei left the Tigers for THE Other OSU.

21-thru-25 -- Kentucky, Wisconsin, North Carolina, UTSA, Auburn.

So what if I over-ranked Auburn. Dude has to believe, right? As for Kentucky, well, I believe they may actually get better QB play from the NC State transfer than what Will Levis delivered in an erratic and injury-plagued 2022 season. I think Wisconsin made the off-season's best hire in Luke Fickell. UNC still has Sam Howell, who will put up huge numbers. Speaking of huge numbers, UTSA quarterback Frank Harris returns for a seventh season for the Roadrunners and already has more than 11,000 yards from scrimmage and 99 career TDs accounted for in his career.

College Hall of Fame

Wow, well, let's just spend all our time on college football today, shall we?

The college football Hall of Fame announced its newest class on Monday. The full list is here. And there are several names on that list that deserve a tip of the visor.

Tim Tebow is in this class, and I'm not sure there is one player in the history of the game who was more universally loved as he played on a team universally loathed. Hey, I get UT fans and UGA fans being mad at what Tebow's Gators did to them during his time there. But if someone truly does not like Tim Tebow, that's almost assuredly a them problem.

Eric Berry is in this class. I think he's my personal favorite UT Vol to ever come through Knoxville, believe it or not.

Mark Richt is in this class. I do not know if there is a more genuinely kind man in this profession. (Side note: Let's be really clear about the "They should have never gotten rid of..." discussion in college football. Because for every outside fan or pundit who said UT should have never gotten rid of Phil Fulmer or Auburn should not have ditched the Gus Bus, well, it's not about the decision to cut bait, it's only about the next hire. Because no one is saying Georgia shouldn't have parted ways with Richt, even though he won at an extreme level. The reason is because Kirby is winning at a historic level.)

Paul Johnson is in this class. One of the best in-game play-callers I've ever talked to. Coach Johnson is a true class act and a wonderful dude. I will stop gushing and relay some words if Spy decides to share his thoughts.

Roy Kramer is in this class. And for all of the SEC love that is around the college football world this morning, Kramer was the dude that put the SEC on this path. Be it conference title games to expansion to grabbing control of the game that controls college sports, it just means more in the SEC in large part because of Kramer's efforts.

Thoughts?

This and that

-- Well, as for the rest of the sports world, we'll start with the Titans cleaning house by firing OC Todd Downing and three other assistants. More to come in the mailbag later this week.

-- Not sure I have ever seen anything like the Carlos Correa ordeal. Signed with the Giants for huge dollars before the deal was voided after he failed a physical. Agreed to terms with the Mets but the deal has not been finalized three weeks later. Now he is in talks to return to the Twins? Nuts, I say.

-- This is nothing short of great news as Damar Hamlin has returned to Buffalo to continue his road to recovery.

-- Congrats, Ted P, on winning the Bowling for Bowls of Bowl Game Success (Bowler Optional). Send me your mailing address to jgreeson@timesfreepress.com, and we'll get you the prize package.

Today's questions

True or false, it's Tuesday. Morning, Ernie.

True or false: Stetson Bennett is on Rushmore greatest SEC players of the last 50 years. (Not the best mind you, but the greatest, because only Tim Tebow has a career resumè that is clearly better than Stetson's.)

True or false: Kirby has passed Saban as the standard.

True or false: Alabama's run as the SEC kingpin has ended.

True or false: You turned the title game off at halftime last night.

True or false: Stetson Bennett will never have to buy a drink in Athens, G-A ever again.

True or false: Stetson Bennett will be a multi-year NFL starter.

You know the drill, answer some T or Fs, leave some T or Fs.

As for today, Jan. 10, let's review.

On this day in 49 B.C., Julius Caesar famously said, "the die is cast."

On this day in 1776, Thomas Paine published "Common Sense" which called for America to move toward independence.

On this day in 1999 "The Sopranos" debuted. Still 100% on the all-time TV Rushmore in my book.

On this day in 1982, Dwight Clark made "The Catch" as the 49ers downed the Cowboys in the NFC title game.

Rod Stewart is 78 today.

Rushmore of 'Rod' and remember to keep it clean, people.

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