re: Is Kirby's UGA defense the best we’ve seen in the SEC in recent history? Nxt lvl data...

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We could do yards per play below season average when eliminating each team.

Ex: When we eliminate UGA, Arkansas was averaging 6.73 YPP. Against UGA, they averaged 3.6.

Right now, UGA is holding its opponents to 2.4 yards per play below their season average. 2016 Alabama?

Let's get granular!

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Sure thing...

UGA is actually holding opponents to an avg of 2.36ypp below their opponents' season avg when you eliminate the UGA game and FCS opponents from each stat line. The best they've posted is a 3.26ypp difference against Kentucky.

2016 Bama managed to finish the season at 2.35ypp. This includes a SEC championship, and two playoff games. Their season best was 4.6ypp difference against LSU, and they posted above a 3.5ypp difference in 6 FBS games.

You can also break this down into scoring by looking at points allowed per play, which at the moment UGA is holding opponents to 0.314 points below their season average.
So far they've faced an avg ppp of 0.397.
The best offensive ppp they've faced is UK at 0.522. The best difference they've posted is against Arkansas at 0.502ppp below their average.

2016 Bama finished at 0.288 points below the opponet's average ppp.
Their schedule had a season avg of 0.471ppp.
The best offensive ppp they faced was strangely WKU at 0.697ppp (Washington was 2nd at 0.688).
The best difference they posted was against Washington at 0.563ppp below their average.

It's worth noting that the 2016 Bama defense also averaged 0.071 non-offensive points per play, which means the defense actually scored 1 point for every 14 plays an opposing offense ran.

2021 UGA's defense averages 0.029 non-offensive ppp, which comes out to scoring 1 point for every 34 plays an opposing offense runs.

Yes I'm a bit of a numbers geek.