Georgia's greatest obstacle in elusive college football three-peat might be itself

Definitely Michigan, Alabama and Ohio State, and maybe LSU, Southern California, Penn State, Florida State, Clemson and Tennessee: These are the teams standing between Georgia and college football history.

Not to mention ... Minnesota?

The entire Football Bowl Subdivision is in pursuit of the two-time defending national champions, last seen pulling off a 65-7 destruction of TCU in the College Football Playoff. Over the course of these past two seasons, Georgia has eclipsed the Crimson Tide to become the sport's biggest bully and most envied program.

And as the FBS chases Georgia, the No. 1 team in the preseason USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll, the Bulldogs chase immortality.

Eleven teams representing seven programs have gone back-to-back in college football's modern era, which began with the advent of the Associated Press poll in 1936. Beyond the Bulldogs, the three most recent programs to pull off a repeat are Alabama in 2011-2012, Southern California in 2003-04 and Nebraska in 1994-95.

"We felt hunted at all times," said former Alabama offensive lineman Barrett Jones, who started on national championship teams in 2009, 2011 and 2012.

"It definitely was a difficult challenge, because you knew every week you weren’t going to sneak up on anybody. But I think there’s another side to it, because when you do it one time, you do have the confidence to understand what it takes."

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But if claiming two consecutive national championships has proven to be one of the most elusive team achievements in college sports, winning three in a row has proven to be impossible.

The last team to do so were the Golden Gophers, who won in 1934, 1935 and 1936 behind legendary coach Bernie Bierman. Minnesota would claim two more crowns in 1940 and 1941 before Bierman left the program to report for active military duty, ending the dynasty.

"No offense to the Minnesota 1935 team, but I don't know if it's going to resonate with my audience," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said at SEC media days.

Georgia's dominance shows no sign of slowing under Smart. But that every other attempted threepeat in modern era has failed does make you wonder:

Can these Bulldogs really go where no program has gone before and earn a place in history?

What could go wrong and upend this season, preventing Georgia from pulling off the threepeat?

And what does the program need to change, if anything, to maintain this stranglehold on the national championship for at least one more season?

"The mentality for this year is really just get better, never rest," said junior cornerback Kamari Lassiter. "We're trying to eat off the floor. We are not trying to be complacent this year. We are trying to uphold our standard and keeping the main thing the main thing."

College football dynasties come in different shapes and sizes. Some, such as USC under former coach Pete Carroll, were defined more so by superstar-heavy rosters than schematics. Others, such as the Tom Osborne-coached Nebraska powerhouse, imposed humbling beatdowns without the same flash, relying instead on long-term player development and an unshakeable identity.

"The vehicle that we used was competition," said former USC assistant coach Rocky Seto, who was part of the Trojans' staff from 1999-2009. "The competition was really within ourselves, to see how far we could really take the team, take the program. Are you competing to prepare as well as you can? We were competing to stay focused."

Anyone who has seen Georgia these past two seasons is familiar with the program's combination of talent, depth, experience and aggression. In a way, Smart has mirrored his mentor Nick Saban's approach at Alabama and found a way to combine the USC's five-star recruiting blueprint with Nebraska's intimidating physicality – creating a model that has finally taken advantage of the program's deep well of resources and untapped potential.

This has given Georgia the equivalent of a backup generator in case of emergency. In the odd case where the offensive and defensive schemes aren't working or are bogged down, such as in last year's wins against Missouri and Kentucky, the Bulldogs can simply lean on a heavy talent advantage. This gives Georgia the largest room for error of any team in the FBS.

Even still, several factors could derail Georgia's season and make these Bulldogs the latest footnote in the history of failed threepeat attempts.

There is an increased depth of playoff contenders in the SEC and a better quality of teams, period, especially in the SEC East. Tennessee has made huge gains under coach Josh Heupel, as has South Carolina under Shane Beamer. Florida is expected to rebound after a rare losing season, while Kentucky has developed into a consistent threat for eight or more wins. Overall, the league has three teams in the top five and six teams overall in the preseason poll. Fortunately, Georgia is scheduled to play two of those teams, with a third such potential matchup in the SEC championship game.

The program has lost another parade of starters to the NFL. Ten were drafted this past spring, three in the first round, to give Georgia a record 25 picks in the past two years. Among the notable losses are quarterback Stetson Bennett, creating an unfinished offseason competition, and defenders Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith and Kelee Ringo.

Along with a new quarterback, the offense has a new coordinator in Mike Bobo, who held the same position from 2007-14 and spent last season in an analyst role before the departure of predecssor Todd Monken to the NFL.

But the Bulldogs have already proven themselves more than capable of reloading personnel and overcoming any staffing changes; this marks the second year in a row Smart has replaced one of his top assistants, following former defensive coordinator Dan Lanning's move to Oregon after the 2021 season.

"I think we have a very strong culture among players and coaches and everything," said junior tight end Brock Bowers. "I think we've done a pretty good job of blocking out the outside noise and focusing on ourselves and focusing on the stuff that we can get better at personally."

Given all of Georgia's advantages – talent, coaching, experience, confidence – the one issue that could knock the Bulldogs' from atop the FBS is a lack of focus.

"For teams like Georgia, it’s not going to be a talent issue from year to year. It’s going to be a leadership and focus issue," Jones said. "You have to take it one year at a time. If you think about building on something or doing something again, that’s not going to get you where you want to go."

That's what undid Alabama in 2010, Jones said, despite having "the most talented team we had." Coming off an unbeaten season, the Crimson Tide "didn’t have the same drive and discipline we had before" and finished 10-3, in fourth place in the SEC West.

"I think we learned a lot from that season," he said. "In 2011, we were just so locked in. We were just so driven to get back and win a national championship."

Meanwhile, Georgia has avoided the odd, seemingly avoidable loss that defined season after season of unrealized expectations. They've managed to maintain depth despite the rampant popularity of the transfer portal. After coming within a whisper of the championship in 2017, Georgia climbed to the top of college football and have stayed there, unmoved, and were even more dominant as defending champions in 2022.

For Smart, part of staying the course requires ignoring the elephant in the room: the opportunity to threepeat.

"I don't care about the threepeat, the two-peat or the one-peat. I care about complacency," he said. "If the focus is on that and the outcomes, I think the rest will take care of itself in terms of allowing our guys to focus on being the best they can be."

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