Editor’s note: Part of a continuing series examining the Power 5 and top Group of 5 teams for the 2019 college football season.



The last national championship trophy that the Georgia football program has won sits in near-isolation, in the far corner of the second floor of Georgia’s main athletic facility. It’s meant to dramatically overlook the practice field, but the reality is less dramatic: When players walk to the practice fields, their backs are to the trophy. When they’re walking back, their heads rarely glance up. There are players and staffers who don’t even know it’s there.



The specter of winning it all, however, has hung over the program for a while. The frustration at not doing so caused the school’s power brokers to sub out Mark Richt for Kirby Smart, because he was a native son who had seen how a championship team was run. The magical second season of Smart’s tenure, and the painful ending, showed...