Sentell’s Intel is usually about players and prospects and the future life’s blood of the Georgia football program. Not this time. This time we pop the hood on Georgia surpassing two all-time great Alabama runs for the longest win streak in Southeastern Conference history at 29 games.
Kirby Smart is not Will Ferrell. Not in the least. The famous Hollywood actor is on the polar opposite street corner of serious work that Smart thrives on.
Yet both are now just a little bit famous for going streaking. Ask a card-carrying member of DawgNation about going streaking.
If they have a 5-star sense of humor, they will think of KFC or going through the quad. They will also remember that part about Snoop on the stage brought to you by Speaker City.
And if they would not miss what’s happening on Saturday afternoon at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the world, then they are mighty proud of the 29 straight wins the Bulldogs have forged together since the last time the ‘Dawgs lost to Alabama.
What does DawgNation really need to know about this streak? Here are a few serious talking points to share around the water cooler this week or the tailgate/big screen TV on Saturday.
The ‘Dawgs have the SEC record so what’s up next on the streak?
Smart says these ‘Dawgs will always hunt. They will never be the hunted.
That’s the perfect place to start. So what’s that coming down the track for the ‘Dawgs to check off some more college football history?
Let’s take a look and see how the ‘Dawgs can keep climbing up the list of the longest all-time winning streaks in NCAA Division I football history.
30 straight wins:
- Texas Longhorns (1968-1970)
31 straight wins:
- Pittsburgh (1914-1918)
- Oklahoma (1948-1950)
32 straight wins:
- Nebraska (1969-1972)
34 straight wins:
- Penn (1894-1896)
- Miami (2000-2022)
35 straight wins:
- Toledo (1969-1971)
37 straight wins:
- Yale (1887-1889) and (1890-1893)
40 straight wins:
- Washington (1908-1914)
47 straight wins:
- Oklahoma (1953-1957)
It seems inconceivable that the ‘Dawgs are stepping into the pages of history with teams from the 1880s, 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and the all-time great “U” teams of the turn of this century.
Yet here we are.
That’s even in the days of name, image and likeness (NIL) and the transfer portal in the year 2023.
29 straight Georgia football wins: Popping the hood on this all-time run
We pulled together a quick way to look at Georgia football and its 29 straight wins. Here’s a quick comparison of how the 29 wins were built.
- National titles: 2
- Wins vs. Top 5 teams in win streak: 5
- Wins vs. Top 10 teams in win streak: 6
- Wins vs. Top 20 teams in win streak: 11
- Wins vs. SEC schools: 18
- Postseason wins: 5
- Margin of victory (2021): 19 points per game
- Margin of victory (2022): 26.8 points per game
- Margin of victory (2023): 23.8 points per game
- Margin of victory (29 straight wins): 25 points per game
- Wins by 50 or more points: 2
- Wins by 40 or more points: 6
- Wins by 30 or more points: 10
- Wins by 20 or more points: 18
- Wins by 20 points or less: 11
- Wins by 10 points or less: 7 (5 of those were away from Sanford Stadium)
- Wins by seven points or less: 3 (2023 at Auburn (27-20); 2022 vs. Ohio State in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (42-41); 2022 at Missouri (26-22).
We’ve also compiled a tandem comparison of what it was like for the 2000 Miami Hurricanes to assemble its 34 straight wins in the modern era. That tear was forged by just playing in a single bowl game with no playoffs coming out of a weak Big East. There were only eight teams in the Big East during that three-season stretch that won eight or more games in a respective season.
Ohio State eventually snapped Miami’s win streak at 34 games with its 31-24 double-overtime victory in what was truly an instant classic football game.
- National titles: 1
- Wins vs. Top 5 teams in win streak: 3
- Wins vs. Top 10 teams in win streak: 6
- Wins vs. Top 20 teams in win streak: 12
- Wins vs. Big East schools: 21
- Postseason wins: 2
- Margin of victory (34 straight wins): 29.9 points per game
- Wins by 50 or more points: 4
- Wins by 40 or more points: 8
- Wins by 30 or more points: 13
- Wins by 20 or more points: 25
- Wins by 20 points or less: 9
- Wins by 10 points or less: 4
- Wins by seven points or less: 4 (2002 vs. Pittsburgh (28-21); (2002 vs. FSU (28-27); 2001 at Virginia Tech (26-24); 2000 vs. FSU (27-24).
We’ll let one interpret their own degree of difficulty of playing Rutgers, Syracuse and Temple six times in that three-year span compared to coming out of the SEC and catching big-boy programs like Michigan, Alabama, Oregon and Ohio State to build the active Bulldog streak.
Georgia has seen 16 of its peer SEC teams win at least eight games during its current 29-game win streak. That said, the SEC is currently twice the size of the Big East back during Miami’s historic run.
Miami beat Florida (Sugar Bowl) and Nebraska (Rose Bowl) in its two bowl games to extend its 34-game win streak from the 2000 to the 2001 to the 2002 seasons.
It must also be noted the powerful Hurricanes built another separate 29-game win streak from 1990-1992 that currently matches Georgia’s run. In that span, Miami was only able to win a split championship during that streak. The Hurricanes were named the national champion by the Associated Press while the Coaches’ Poll awarded its No. 1 ranking to the Washington Huskies.
Here’s another strong time stamp of this Georgia football era: Remember those acclaimed Nebraska teams of the 1990s? Those Cornhuskers only won 26 straight games and a pair of back-to-back national championships in 1994 and 1995.
Georgia football: The closest calls of the SEC record 29 straight wins
There have been seven instances in which the Bulldogs won by 10 or fewer points in the 29-game win streak.
- 2023: Georgia 31, Georgia Tech 23 (Atlanta, Ga.) -- 29th straight win
- 2023: Georgia 30, Missouri 21 (Athens, Ga.) -- 26th straight win
- 2023: Georgia 27, Auburn 20 (Auburn, Ala.) -- 22nd straight win
- 2023: Georgia 24, South Carolina 14 (Athens, Ga.) -- 20th straight win
- 2022: Georgia 42, Ohio State 41 (Atlanta, Ga.) -- 16th straight win
- 2022: Georgia 16, Kentucky 6 (Lexington, Ky.) -- 10th straight win
- 2022: Georgia 26, Missouri 22 (Columbia, Mo.) -- 7th straight win
Georgia football: The big game wins for the Bulldogs to get to 29 straight
- 2023: Beat No. 18 Tennessee by 28 (Knoxville, Tenn.) -- 28th straight win
- 2023: Beat No. 9 Ole Miss by Missouri by 35 (Athens, Ga.) -- 27th straight win
- 2023: Beat No. 12 Missouri by 9 (Athens, Ga.) -- 26th straight win
- 2023: Beat No. 20 Kentucky by 38 (Athens, Ga.) -- 23rd straight win
- 2022: Beat No. 3 TCU by 58 (Inglewood, Calif.) -- 17th straight win
- 2022: Beat No. 4 Ohio State by 1 (Atlanta, Ga.) -- 16th straight win
- 2022: Beat No. 14 LSU by 20 (Atlanta, Ga.) -- 15th straight win
- 2022: Beat No. 1 Tennessee by 14 (Athens, Ga.) -- 11th straight win
- 2022: Beat No. 11 Oregon by 46 -- 3rd straight win
- 2021: Beat No. 1 Alabama by 15 (Indianapolis, Ind. -- 2nd straight win
- 2021: Beat No. 2 Michigan by 23 (Miami Gardens, Fla.) -- 1st win
SENTELL'S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
