Georgia football must regroup after Ole Miss loss, Tennessee up next

OXFORD, Miss. – Last time Tennessee and Georgia met in Sanford Stadium, it was No. 1 vs. No. 2 battling for national supremacy. When they reconvene between the hedges on Saturday (7:30 p.m., ABC) it will be only about survival.

That’s especially true for the No. 3-ranked Bulldogs (7-2, 5-2 SEC), who will have to wait until Tuesday to find out how damaging to the College Football Playoff ranking their 28-10 loss to No. 16 Ole Miss (8-2, 5-2) was on Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Georgia was thoroughly dominated in every phase by Lane Kiffin’s Rebels and suffered its worst defeat since the 37-10 stomping by No. 1 LSU in the 2019 SEC Championship game.

The victory sets up Ole Miss to make the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history. The Rebels will be heavily favored in its last two games, against Florida Nov. 23 and Mississippi State in the season’s final week.

ExploreOle Miss fans rush the field before game clock expires against Georgia

Georgia’s situation now is more dire. Depending on the selection committee’s whims and the fortunes of a half-dozen other SEC teams, the Bulldogs could be out if they lose to the Vols. Their cause was not helped by Alabama’s 42-13 annihilation of LSU in Baton Rouge on Saturday night. Now, with the same number of losses as Georgia and having won head-to-head, the Crimson Tide will get the benefit of the doubt in any comparative analysis.

“We’re not riding this roller-coaster wave of emotions,” said Georgia coach Kirby Smart, using a hand to accentuate an up-and-down motion. “We’re on a long journey. You’ve got play the next play, and you’ve got to play the next game, and that’s the goal for this group. That’s what I told (the team) in there. I was like, ‘Guys, our future’s in front of us.’ We’ve got to figure out how to get better.”

Based solely on its showing in Mississippi, the Bulldogs might need to curry some new favor with the committee anyway. Quarterback Carson Beck suddenly is a turnover machine, Georgia’s defense can’t stop anybody, and the invincibility of the past three seasons seems to have evaporated like a morning mist.

Here are five other things we learned Saturday:

Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava sidelined

It’s too soon to tell if it will linger into next weekend’s matchup, but Tennessee lost quarterback Nico Iamaleava for the second half of Saturday’s 33-14 win over Mississippi State. The 6-foot-6, 215-pound redshirt freshman was shaken up after taking a hard hit at the end of the first half. He ran the last three plays of the quarter to set up a field goal but did not return in the second half.

Iamaleava’s specific injury wasn’t disclosed after the game, other than being described as “upper body.” However, coach Josh Heupel expects his quarterback to be ready to go against the Bulldogs.

“Precautionary measure at halftime,” Heupel said. “Feel like we’ll be ready to roll Saturday.”

Iamaleava had completed 8 of 13 passes for 174 yards and 2 TDs when he left the game. Backup Gaston Moore finished the game and completed 5 of 8 passes for 38 yards as the Vols mostly ran the football the rest of the way.

Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson was just fine and should be an even greater concern for the Bulldogs. He had 149 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries.

Chaotic scene in Oxford

The scene at the end of the game in Oxford got out of hand fast. Ole Miss fans – mostly students – leaped onto the field from the stands as soon as Carson Beck’s final fourth-down pass for Arian Smith fell incomplete.

Trouble was, 16 seconds still remained on the clock.

Officials then had to clear the field of thousands of people so that Jaxson Dart and the Ole Miss offense could come back onto the field for a kneel-down play. The Bulldogs were out of timeouts and couldn’t stop the clock.

Most of Georgia’s team already had left for the safety of the locker room. The Bulldogs summoned 11 defenders to come back onto the field. After Jaxson Dart took the snap and quickly took a knee, the mob reentered the field of play and collapsed around the players.

Malaki Starks was one of the Bulldogs left in the middle of it.

“That’s never happened to me before,” the junior safety said. “I ran into a few people. But it sucks; it sucks being on the other side. I don’t ever want to feel that way again. We just have to go back to work and be better all around.”

Ole Miss will be fined $250,000 by the SEC for the field-storming. Kiffin joked that it “might as well be two fines” since the fans ran on the field twice.

Both goalposts were torn down. One was last seen in The Square downtown.

Credit: Chip Towers

Credit: Chip Towers

Georgia RB Trevor Etienne limited again

For the second straight week, running back Trevor Etienne was unable to complete a game for the Bulldogs. A week after injuring a rib against Florida, the same injury forced Etienne sideline against Ole Miss. He finished with only 9 touches for 34 yards, two after halftime.

“That’s hard on him, but I thought he was really tough tonight and made some good runs for us,” Smart said. “He tried to go out there and tough it out, but he didn’t feel like he had the same juice. He felt like he was a step slow.”

In the fourth quarter, Etienne had 1 carry for 3 yards and 1 reception for no gain. Freshman Nate Frazier was the Bulldogs’ leading rusher again, with 47 yards on 12 carries.

Thanks in part to Beck being sacked five times for minus-20 yards, Georgia had a season-low rushing total of 59 yards.

Georgia’s offensive struggles continue

Beck is having a rough senior season, but his receivers aren’t helping much. The Bulldogs had at least three more dropped passes against Ole Miss. That gives them 29 on the season, which leads the nation, according to announcers during the ABC broadcast.

Flanker Dillon Bell dropped a pass on third-and-15 on Georgia’s second possession that likely would’ve been short of a first down. Tight end Ben Yurosek dropped a ball on second-and-6 at midfield shortly before halftime that would have been a huge-gainer. Instead, Beck was sacked on the next play, and Georgia had to punt.

Arian Smith, who failed to handle a tipped pass earlier in the game, dropped a ball on the Bulldogs’ 10th possession late in the fourth quarter. Also, in the first quarter, London Humphreys could not hang onto a ball after a a hard hit on a third-down play that would’ve earned a first down.

“It’s a missed opportunity,” Smart said of all the dropped balls. “That’s the toughest thing. We’ve dealt with that before, and we’ve got to overcome it.”

Getting healthy

The only positive out of Saturday’s game was some injured players returning to action.

Guard Tate Ratledge was able to go almost the entire game just six weeks after undergoing TightRope surgery on his right ankle. That was big since his replacement, Micah Morris, was not fully recovered from the leg injury that knocked him out of the Florida game.

Senior linebacker Smael Mondon also got on the field for several key moments. The preseason All-America candidate had missed the previous four games with a foot injury. He recorded one tackle Saturday.

But the most surprising return of the night belonged to the Ole Miss quarterback. Dart aggravated an ankle injury when he was dropped for a 6-yard sack on the Rebels’ second play from scrimmage. He then threw an interception on the third.

While Dart was getting treatment in the locker room, redshirt freshman Austin Simmons relieved him on the next possession and completed 5 of 6 passes while leading the Rebels on a 75-yard touchdown drive.

The next Ole Miss possession saw Dart trot back onto the field.

“I didn’t know Jaxson was coming back in.,” Kiffin said. “He did medical things, came back to me and said, ‘I’m going in.’ He didn’t look good to me, the way he limped off. I thought he was done. I told Austin to warm up and said that ‘we’re going to run the same calls with you.’”

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Mississippi fans celebrate by taking down a goal post after Mississippi defeated Georgia 28-10 at Vaught Hemingway Stadium, Saturday, November 9, 2024, in Oxford, Ms. (Jason Getz / AJC)