The 2024 Georgia Bulldogs will be remembered as a resilient group who navigated injuries and a challenging schedule to win the program’s 15th Southeastern Conference championship.
It was not a year for the offensive record books.
Thursday night’s 23-10 loss to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl quarterfinal of the College Football Playoff marked the fourth time this season the Bulldogs failed to score 17 points during 60 minutes of regulation. Georgia’s average of 31.5 points per game was its lowest since the 2019 season, and its average of 405.4 yards a contest was its lowest since 2016, which was Kirby Smart’s first season at the helm of his alma mater.
Georgia experienced a precipitous drop in offensive productivity from the 2023 season, when the Bulldogs averaged 40.1 points and 496.5 yards per game under the same coordinator, Mike Bobo.
“I attribute that first off to some really good defenses we played, and this one was a really good defense,” Smart said Thursday night in a news conference. “We’ve had a rotating lineup with guys who have rolled in and out, and we haven’t created the same thing on defense that we have in the past. If you look at our past defenses, we’ve created more turnovers and were better on third downs to get the ball back.