ATHENS – Three things upsets needed to happen Saturday for Georgia to punch its ticket to the SEC Championship Game for a fourth consecutive year and all of them seemed unlikely. The Bulldogs would need Ole Miss to lose on the road to Florida, Alabama to fall to Oklahoma and Texas A&M to go down against Auburn on the Plains.
Check, check and check.
No. 9 Ole Miss fell to Florida 24-17 in The Swamp; Oklahoma thumped No. 7 Alabama 24-3 in Norman; and then Auburn needed four overtimes to finally prevail by a 2-point conversion over Texas A&M 43-41.
It was one of the most chaos-filled, late-season Saturdays in the history of the SEC. And with it, the Georgia Bulldogs (9-2, 6-2 SEC) went from the outside looking in, to the only team in. Now UGA will have wait to see who wins between Texas and Texas A&M this Saturday in College Station to find out who it will play on Dec. 7 Mercedes-Benz Stadium (4 p.m.). The Dogs will get the winner.
In the meantime, Georgia still has a little tilt to play against archrival Georgia Tech 7-4. And while the outcome of that game will not affect the Bulldogs’ SEC championship pursuits, “Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate” was all that was on the mind of coach Kirby Smart as he prepared to leave Sanford Stadium following Georgia’s 59-21 win over Massachusetts.
At the time, Florida had just completed its win over Ole Miss and Alabama and Texas A&M had not yet kicked off.
“Yeah, I’m worried about Georgia Tech,” Smart snapped. “That’s all I’m thinking about. I could care less about anybody else in the world but my team and how we get ready in six days for Georgia Tech.”
Georgia defeated then No. 1-ranked Texas 30-15 on Oct. 19 in Austin. The Bulldogs didn’t play Texas A&M (8-3, 5-2) this season and the teams haven’t met since Georgia beat them 19-13 in Athens in 2019. The Aggies’ other conference loss this season was to South Carolina (44-20) and they lost the season opener to Notre Dame 23-13 at home at Kyle Field.
No. 10-ranked Georgia completed conference play on Nov. 16 with a 31-17 win over then-No. 7-ranked Tennessee at Sanford Stadium. With Alabama and Ole Miss losing, the Bulldogs held the tiebreakers over the other all two-loss teams.
Here’s some other things we learned Saturday:
The hate is real
Speaking at an alumni event this past summer, Georgia Tech head coach and football letterman Brent Key infamously declared his unabashed hatred for the Georgia Bulldogs,
“There’s nothing I hate more in the world,” Key said. “It’s probably the only thing I actually hate. When I say hate, like, I truly despise everything about it. I really do.”
Key was decidedly more tempered when asked after Thursday’s 30-29 win over N.C. State, which capped an undefeated season for the Yellow Jackets at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
“I’m passionate about playing (Georgia),” he said, subbing passion for hate this time. “It’s the next game, come on.”
The Bulldogs shared that measured approach when asked about facing the Yellow Jackets Saturday. Georgia has won six straight in the series and 19 of 23 since the turn of the century. All four losses came in Athens.
“All games are important, right?” said Smart, who’s 6-1 against the Jackets. “It’s rivalry game, it’s the end of the year, it’s intrastate. You’re representing your state, your program, your conference.”
Smart’s players followed his lead.
“This game means a lot to a lot of people, I know that for sure,” senior guard Tate Ratledge said. “Coming here you know that. They’ve got a really good team, they play physical and I’m looking forward to it.”
Said linebacker CJ Allen: “Every opportunity you have to strap it on you want to go out there and play your best. That’s every game.”
Beck’s OK
Georgia quarterback Carson Beck says he’s fine. His health became concern early in the fourth quarter Saturday when he was hit hard while trying to complete a fourth-down pass against UMass. It was the only offensive possession that Beck oversaw that not end in a score.
Beck was slow to get up and trainers ran up to him as he hobbled to the sideline. But ultimately he shrugged them off and took a seat on the bench. He’d spent the rest of the game on the Georgia sideline, but only because the Bulldogs led 51-21 at the time.
“I mean, I was hurting a little bit,” Beck said after the game. “Body’s hurting for sure. But it’s football. So, you know, I don’t have a black(non-contact) jersey on out there like I do at practice. But, I mean, I’m good. I was just hurting a little bit. It is what it is. It’s football.”
Beck threw TD passes of 8, 15, 17 and 34 yards, each to different receivers. One was to tight end Oscar Delp, who has three in the last two games.
More importantly, it was Beck’s second straight “clean game” after committing 13 turnovers in a six-game stretch before that.
“I think the first thing is the offensive line is playing so well,” Beck said. “When I’m not getting pressured as much and can sit back there comfortably and make my reads, it makes life much better to me.”
Senior Day
With the win Saturday, the 2024 seniors, surpassed the 2023 seniors as the winningest in school history at 51-4. That’s also the best in FBS, with at least three games left to go.
“They were a part of two national championships and part of an undefeated, regular-season team that didn’t get to play for it last year,” Smart said. “They’ll be remembered for being great leaders and being extremely bought in.”
Georgia held Senior Day before Saturday’s game rather than try to do it at night before a high-stakes game against Georgia Tech on Friday.
It was a diverse representation of players, with some seniors participating in Senior Day a second time and other seniors not participating at all. Sixth-year offensive tackle Xavier Truss, for instance, skipped this year, which would have been his third.
Fifth-year senior Tate Ratledge was thrilled to be introduced and pose for a picture with his family and Smart for a second year in a row.
“It means a lot to do that with the guys I’ve been through all this with, the relationships I’ve built and how much this university means to me,” he said.
One of the seniors who participated is a redshirt sophomore in eligibility. Luke Bennett, a receiver and the younger brother of Georgia great Stetson Bennett, is set to graduate in the spring with a degree in risk management and insurance. A walk-on and scout-team player, Luke Bennett played against Tennessee Tech this season and caught a 3-yard pass in the Orange Bowl last year.
Dinged-up Dogs
Georgia was unable to meet its most important objective, which was to get through the game without losing any starters to injury. The Bulldogs saw redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Christen Miller suffer a shoulder dislocation with 1:32 remaining in the first quarter.
Smart wasn’t sure about Miller’s status for Georgia Tech, but it did not look good.
“I not sure,” Smart said. “They put (the shoulder) back in but I’m not sure beyond that.”
It’d be a tough blow if Miller can’t go. The 6-foot-4, 305-pound lineman has had a great season as an every-game starter for the Bulldogs. He was second among down-linemen with 21 tackles coming into Saturday.
Sophomore Xzavier McLeod filled in with the No. 1 defense. He finished with one tackle.
Georgia played Saturday’s game without running back Trevor Etienne (ribs), wide receiver Dillon Bell (ankle), left tackle Earnest Greene (shoulder) and guard Micah Morris (ankle). Running backs Brandon Robinson (knee) and Roderick Robinson (toe) dressed out Saturday and warmed up with the Bulldogs but weren’t ready to contribute, Smart said.
Frazier coming through
Freshman running back Nate Frazier became Georgia’s first 100-yard rusher this season. He finished with 136 yards on 21 carries Saturday and also scored three touchdowns.
It was the fifth time this season Frazier led the Bulldogs in rushing and third time he’s recorded a career high. He had 83 yards on 11 carries in the season-opener against Clemson, recorded a career high 19 carries against Florida and topped them both Saturday.
“More confident,” Smart said of freshman from Compton, Calif. “You know, he’s still learning things; he still messes up. But he’s electric. He’s different when the ball hits his hands. He bursts in the hole. He’s probably too fast sometimes; he’s not patient sometimes. But you talk about a kid that runs hard, works hard,and loves it. Those linemen love playing with him.”
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