Georgia football is coming off a loss, which means what went wrong in its last game is being dissected by fans, media and coaches.

The offensive line. The pass defense. The running game. Quarterback.

There’s plenty of blame to go around from the 28-10 upset by Ole Miss, but there’s another game approaching Saturday with a prime-time national spotlight against Tennessee, which is ranked No. 4 in the coaches’ poll.

Georgia-Tennessee not only has major implications for the playoff and jockeying for an SEC championship game spot, but it’s a heated rivalry.

That’s usually meant good things for the Bulldogs under Kirby Smart.

Smart is 28-2 the last eight seasons as coach against Georgia’s main rivals — Florida, Georgia Tech, Auburn and Tennessee.

“No school through the years has had the number of traditional rivals that Georgia’s had,” longtime Georgia broadcaster Jeff Dantzler said. “It can take a hell of a toll on a fan base for sure because there’s so many teams that you ‘have to’ beat in a given year.”

Dantzler grew up in Statesboro in southeast Georgia as a big Bulldog fan. He keeps track of that record and knows it off the top of his head.

“That and the championships just mean so much to so many people,” Dantzler said. “If you’re at a place like LaGrange or Columbus, there are a lot of Auburn people there that you see every day. You get down around the (Florida border), you see a lot of blue and orange, especially if you start talking more towards south central Georgia there. …When Tech starts playing good, I always say they come out of the woodwork. I see a lot more flags and stickers when they start playing good.”

Dominating Georgia’s biggest rivals is something that arguably has been lost during a run to back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022 and chasing a three-peat last year when the Bulldogs went 13-1, but missed out on the playoff.

Smart said during Auburn week this year that  “the historic nature of this game is very personal,” to him and coaches who played in that game.

As for his players, he said then: ”I don't think these kids know as much. They don't watch football, a lot of them. They don't even... they play it, but they don't watch it. I don't know. You ask them, ‘Who's your favorite NFL team?’ I don't know. They got more, more things to do. They got more attention options. They're going to be on their phone, looking at social media and doing whatever.”

Linebacker Jalon Walker, a North Carolina native, said this week of Tennessee: “I guess there is a rivalry, you say, for this game but for us to me it’s just another SEC football game. We play great SEC schools throughout the year, so it’s another opportunity for us to go out and play football.”

Georgia offensive guard Dylan Fairchild said rivalry games “maybe brings a little bit more in the fans and the environment, but for us it’s a game. We take every game as serious as the last and the next.”

Smart’s total record against the four rivals is 29-5 with losses to Tennessee, Florida and Georgia Tech in 2016 in his first season, Auburn in 2017 and Florida in 2020.

In Mark Richt's time as Georgia’s coach from 2001-15, he went 37-23 against Tennessee, Florida, Auburn and Georgia Tech.

Richt had a winning record against Georgia Tech (13-2), Auburn (10-5) and Tennessee (9-6) but went 5-10 against Florida.

The Gators went 18-3 against Georgia from 1990 to 2010, which spanned the Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer tenures.

“For me as a kid, from '83 to '90, Pat Dye and Auburn beat us seven out of eight,” Dantzler said. “Obviously Tennessee had that nine-game winning streak against Georgia (1989 and 1992-99). Thank God, I wasn’t alive during the drought in the 50s against Tech.”

Yes, Smart is just 1-6 against Alabama. Georgia and Alabama may seem like a rivalry because they have been powerhouse programs the last decade, but they played in the regular season just once with Smart as Georgia's coach before this year.

Smart has taken advantage of rival programs under coaching transition.

The Volunteers went from Butch Jones to Jeremy Pruitt to Josh Heupel. The Tigers moved on from Gus Malzahn, had two seasons of Bryan Harsin and now Hugh Freeze. Florida had Jim McElwain, Dan Mullen and Billy Napier. Georgia Tech went from Paul Johnson to Geoff Collins to Brent Key.

Georgia has won seven in a row against Tennessee — its longest streak in series history — eight in a row against Auburn, six straight against Georgia Tech and seven of the last eight against Florida.

Said Dantzler: “That is dream-come-true type stuff that Kirby delivers.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Kirby Smart has had his way with Georgia football's biggest rivals