ATHENS — If the College Football Playoff started this week, the Georgia Bulldogs would not have be a part of it. The Bulldogs dropped from No. 3 to No. 12 following a loss to Ole Miss, and thus Georgia’s seeding would have left it out of the at-large bids.
Georgia’s performance Saturday showed why its a good thing the College Football Playoff committee has several weeks to make its final selection.
The Bulldogs came away with a commanding 31-17 win over the Tennessee Volunteers, who were ranked No. 7 by the College Football Playoff committee entering the game with an 8-1 record.
“I don’t know what they’re looking for. I really don’t,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “I wish they could really define the criteria. I wish they could do the eyeball test where they come down here and look at the people we’re playing against and look at them. And you can’t see that stuff on TV. So I don’t know what they look for, but that’s for somebody else to decide. I’m worried about our team.”
After falling behind 10-0, Georgia went on to outscore Tennessee 31-7 over the final three quarters of the game.
Tennessee came into the game having not given up more than 20 points in a game this season.
The Bulldogs tallied 453 yards, powered by quarterback Carson Beck’s strong performance which included 347 passing yards.
Defensively, Georgia shut out Tennessee in the second half. The Bulldogs sacked Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava 5.0 times on the night, with the last sack leading to a fumble recovered by Chris Cole.
Georgia is now 8-2 on the season and 6-2 in SEC play. The losses came against Ole Miss and Alabama, two teams also projected to make the College Football Playoff.
The Bulldogs have now wrapped up their conference slate. Georgia needs some help to get to Atlanta for the SEC championship game but it has navigated a brutal stretch of games and is still very much in the playoff discussion.
“Everybody thinks we should win every game,” Smart said. “I’m very proud of our team. If you told me that this group would be this resilient, I would probably say I don’t doubt it, because they’re great kids. And they played the toughest schedule in our league, and we still got two games left of tough teams.”
Georgia wraps up with season hosting UMass and Georgia Tech. The Bulldogs have to win both of those games to stay in the playoff picture.
The upcoming CFP rankings, released Tuesday evening, will show how much a statement win will change Georgia’s standing with the committee.
“We’re trying to be the cumulative, whole, really good quality team,” Smart said. “And not be on this emotional roller coaster that’s controlled by people in a room somewhere that may not understand football like we do as coaches. We as coaches look at people and say, what can we do better? How do we get better? I respect their decision. I respect their opinion but it’s different in our league.”
Kirby Smart calls out CFP committee after win over Tennessee
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