Big tests ahead for Georgia as reigning national champions hit bye week undefeated
Media members waiting in an interview room for Georgia football coach Kirby Smart peered over shoulders to catch a glimpse of the final seconds of Alabama-Tennessee on Saturday evening on laptops and cell phones.
Georgia’s 55-0 stomping of Vanderbilt at Sanford Stadium ended about 45 minutes earlier. Players were done answering questions outside for about 10 minutes but nobody was expecting Smart to walk in until the happenings in Knoxville ended.
Then a 40-yard field goal gave Tennessee a 52-49 victory and sure enough Smart soon came through the doors to take his postgame spot at the podium.
“Happy for homecoming and our fan base,” Smart started. “I appreciate them coming out.”
Later, he admitted he was checking on how things unfolded with two other SEC title contenders and, it’s fair to say now, national championship contenders.
"I was watching it until we jumped in and we came on over,” said Smart, who gets a ride on a golf cart from the Georgia locker room. “We thought it was going to go to overtime. But I heard as I was walking in that they nailed the field goal."
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Quarterback Stetson Bennett said kept the focus on Vanderbilt until the game was over.
“What’s that score?” he asked reporters while the game was still in the fourth quarter. “When we went into the locker room, they had it on in the training room.”
When his interview was over, he said: “I’m going up to watch it.”
Tennessee will be toasted and Alabama questioned this week.
The Bulldogs’ win over Vanderbilt was pretty far off the radar Saturday.
It’s fair to take a moment while the rapid rise of Tennessee under second-year coach Josh Huepel is a big storyline to appreciate that Georgia going 7-0 heading into a bye week wasn't guaranteed even for the reigning national champions.
“I think we’re pretty decent,” safety Christopher Smith said. “We’re undefeated. That’s all you can ask for. We’ve got to put every game in the past in the past.”
The last two times Georgia started 7-0 were pretty special seasons under Smart: last season and 2017 when the Bulldogs reached the national championship game.
The program had 7-0 starts before then just five times after the 1946 season.
“I don’t think people can really grasp the work we put in through film, school, practice,” center Sedrick Van-Pran Granger said. “All of that stuff that goes into it, you’re barely focused on yourself. You’re constantly focused on ball.”
Georgia has been tested already. It needed to rally in the fourth quarter to win at Missouri two weeks earlier 26-22.
Georgia’s offense has found life, scoring its most points of the season Saturday. The Bulldogs followed up their 62-0 win over Vanderbilt last season with the 55-0 knockout this time.
The last time Georgia blanked an SEC opponent in back-to-back years was in 1980-81 against Kentucky.
"Anytime you get a shutout, any time you get that many yards, it’s a positive," Smart said. "And we got to play a lot of players. We’re a beat-up, banged-up football team going into the off week."
Georgia is still unbeaten despite star defensive tackle Jalen Carter and wide receiver Adonai Mitchell missing much of the season due to injuries. Getting them back in the lineup would add impactful pieces, and tight end Darnell Washington — who had four catches for 78 yards Saturday — is becoming a headache for defenses. Just like Brock Bowers.
Georgia (7-0, 4-0 SEC) has played just one ranked opponent so far. That was a No. 12 Oregon team that the Bulldogs destroyed 49-3.
The Redcoat Band members who chanted after Saturday's game that, “It’s great to be a Gator Hater,” sounded ready for the next game against Florida on Oct. 29 in Jacksonville.
The Gators fell to 1-3 in the SEC with a 45-35 home loss to LSU on Saturday night.
The clear monster matchup ahead is against Tennessee (6-0, 3-0), which will be a top 5 team after taking down Alabama but still plays Kentucky at home before a Nov. 5 game in Athens.
“For us, we’re focused on us and getting better as us,” Smart said. “We’ve got a long way to go, guys. We’ve got a long way to go to be the team we need to be. We’ve got to get that done in practices so that we can play well down the stretch run."
There are tricky November road games left for Georgia after that at Mississippi State and Kentucky, both whom have two losses after the Wildcats beat Mike Leach’s team 27-17 on Saturday night.
“We’ve got a tough schedule ahead of us,” Smith said. “We’ve got to continue to work, keep our head down and grind. That’s what it’s going to take to go undefeated. … Our ultimate goal is to win the national championship like last year and we’re far from that goal.”