You do realize that the Smart era is hugely different from the Richt era. It's not as bad as comparing the Fulmer era to the Dooley era, because Richt was actually a really good coach, but it's vastly different.
Thinking back, in 5 seasons here are the teams we lost to where we were favored or should have won:
- USCjr in 2019 - this was the worst loss, with Fromm throwing 3 INTs - that's how these upsets normally take place - we play terrible.
- Texas in the Sugar Bowl
- @ Auburn, but they beat Bama that year too, and we beat them in the SECCG.
- @ LSU in 2018 - that was Burrow's first year and you could see he was going to be great. We were favored, but I am not sure that was that big of an upset.
- Trask and UF beating us in 2020 might qualify.
So, in the context of us having a "history" of losing games like these, the USCjr game is the only one. The others were tough, away game toss-ups or bowl games.
That's 4 games in 5 years. That's some wishful thinking that Smart has some "history" of losings games like these.