Tennessee football motivated Georgia Bulldogs to 'eat off the floor.' Here's why | Toppmeyer

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Ron Swanson once told us that only three things motivate people: money, fear and hunger. The “Parks and Recreation” character apparently didn’t spend much time around football locker rooms.

Proving naysayers wrong remains unmatched fuel for college football teams.

Athletes will search every corner of the internet for a shred of doubt that they can prove wrong. Coaches will remind their team that no one outside the locker room believes in them, even if that’s a conjured narrative.

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And so it is that the Georgia Bulldogs spent the season with a big ol’ chip on their shoulder – a defending national champion that felt doubted and slighted by the masses.

“No one (thought) we’d be back in this position,” linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson said Monday after the No. 1 Bulldogs thrashed No. 3 TCU, 65-7, in a national championship beatdown unlike any we’ve seen.

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Was that really the case?

Yes, and no.

It’s true Georgia (15-0) was not a widespread preseason favorite to win the national championship. Alabama opened the season ranked No. 1, followed by No. 2 Ohio State, then Georgia.

The Bulldogs remained widely respected, but, on the whole, prognosticators (this columnist included) expected Georgia to regress a bit after sending a deep cast of stars off last season’s championship team to the NFL.

Whispers of Georgia being penetrable carried into November.

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The first College Football Playoff rankings, released Nov. 1, included the peak snub.

Despite being the defending national champion and undefeated, the committee ranked Georgia No. 3.

Tennessee was ranked No. 1, buoyed by an upset of Alabama. Ohio State followed at No. 2.

The sportsbooks nonetheless listed Georgia as a nine-point favorite against the Vols on Nov. 5 at Sanford Stadium. Still, the numeral next to Tennessee’s name meant something to the Bulldogs.

“They think we was going to lose to Tennessee, the No. 1 offense. That was a big challenge right there. Y’all see how we completed that challenge. We came out on top in our own home,” Dumas-Johnson, seated in his locker stall, told me Monday while cigar smoke and hip-hop music filled the room.

“That was pretty crazy to see that (people would think) we would lose in our own house.”

Dumas-Johnson called beating the Vols “Step 1” of the challenge to prove naysayers wrong.

Interestingly, this so-called Step 1 didn’t occur until Georgia’s ninth game. The Vols were the Bulldogs’ first ranked opponent since the season opener, when they smashed Oregon. In between, Georgia nearly lost to Missouri.

Tennessee’s high-flying offense was college football’s shiny orange toy, and Hendon Hooker garnered Heisman Trophy buzz.

UT’s No. 1 ranking became “fuel to our tank," Georgia cornerback Kelee Ringo told me Monday night.

Tank full, Georgia accelerated into high gear.

Stetson Bennett IV outdueled Hooker, and Georgia took control by halftime before easing off in a rainy second half for a 27-13 victory.

While the Bulldogs were never in any real danger of losing to Tennessee, they nearly lost to Ohio State in a CFP semifinal – would have, too, if the Buckeyes had converted a 50-yard field goal in the closing seconds.

Had Georgia just won an epic battle against an opponent talented enough to win a national championship, or were the Bulldogs out of juice, exhausted from the chore of trying to repeat?

You could find folks embracing either narrative.

Betting handicappers liked Georgia all season. The Bulldogs were favored in every game. Tennessee and Ohio State were the only opponents that weren’t double-digit underdogs. TCU was a 13-point underdog, but ESPN’s Lee Corso plopped a TCU hat on his head during the pregame picks segment.

Were the skeptics of Georgia widespread entering Monday? No, but naysayers were tucked into the corners, and an athlete looking to feed the chip on his shoulder will search every nook and cranny for a crumb of doubt.

“We had a lot of doubters coming into this game. Ha. Ha,” Dumas-Johnson said, audibly laughing as if in disbelief of the thought that TCU (13-2) could have beaten Georgia. “We proved them wrong again. That’s all we want to do. Just keep chopping wood and prove each other right.”

Georgia’s program preaches this mantra: Eat off the floor.

No matter the conditions or circumstances, stay hungry.

Facing doubters, the Bulldogs stayed ravenous.

And that’s why Kirby Smart figured his team would be OK, even after the departure of so many stars. Head to head, Smart thought his 2021 Bulldogs possessed more talent. Hard to argue, considering 15 players off that squad were selected in the NFL Draft.

And yet, those losses meant this group of players craved the opportunity to show they would keep Georgia on top.

“Throughout the season, we’ve continuously been doubted … from Tennessee to Ohio State, big games like that, and I feel like we were able to answer the bell,” Ringo said.

When the dinner bell rang, these Bulldogs ate off the floor.

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: How Tennessee football motivated Georgia to eat off the floor. UGA dined