SEC Championship, December 7. Georgia 22, Texas 19 in overtime. The league's first SEC title game with Texas as opponent; Smart's fourth SEC title in five years. The dominant-hungry register answered a schedule that now included Texas and Oklahoma.
2024 — The Beyond-the-Double Year
Georgia went 11-3, won the SEC, reached a CFP quarterfinal, and lost to Notre Dame — the first non-Alabama CFP loss of the Kirby Smart era that wasn't a title-stakes game.
The Shape — week-by-week · cumulative W–L below
Who carried it
- Carson BeckQB3,485 passing yards
- Gunner StocktonQB440 passing yards
- Nate FrazierRB671 rushing yards
- Trevor EtienneRB609 rushing yards
- Arian SmithWR817 receiving yards
- Dominic LovettWR607 receiving yards
- Dillon BellWR466 receiving yards
- Malaki StarksDB77 tackles
- C.J. AllenLB76 tackles
- Dan JacksonDB64 tackles
- Chaz ChamblissLB6.5 sacks
- Jalon WalkerLB6.5 sacks
- Mykel WilliamsDL5 sacks
Season leaders, 2024.
CFP Quarterfinal, Sugar Bowl, January 1, 2025. Notre Dame 23, Georgia 10. Carson Beck played hurt; the offense never found the rhythm the SEC title game had shown. The post-title era's first early CFP exit.
Three losses total (Alabama, Ole Miss, Notre Dame) — the first year of the Smart era with more than two regular-season-plus-CFP losses. The program calibration did not move; the schedule got harder. Both were true.
"The hunt didn't end. The schedule changed around it."
2024 is the chapter Georgia played at the standard without winning at it. An SEC title, a CFP quarterfinal, three losses — the latter being the data point the program's fan intelligence will calibrate against for the rest of the decade. The schedule changed: Texas in the conference, the SEC title game rematch-style, the CFP bracket at twelve teams. Georgia did not slip. The league caught up. The distinction matters to the dog-in-the-dirt voice, which has always been about executing the hunt, not about gate-keeping the bracket.