Georgia has played as many close games this season as from 2021-23 combined

ATHENS — Kirby Smart knows what Georgia is doing is not sustainable.

Falling behind early, rallying late. Do it enough, and it will get you beat. Georgia saw that against Alabama, where it fell behind 24-14 in the first half and couldn’t get back out in front.

Georgia has flirted with a second loss since that September defeat, yet it has found a way to stave it off.

Should Georgia continue to win, starting against Mississippi State this weekend, it will only further cement itself in the College Football Playoff.

“I do know that it’ll take care of itself if you handle your business, and if you don’t you’ll be worried about a lot of those things,” Smart said. “That’s just the state of college football where it is. We’re trying to control what we can control right now, what’s in our hands.”

The slow starts are nothing new, as it was an issue for last year’s team as well. That might just be a feature, and not a bug, of Smart’s teams. Georgia speaks so often of being a four-quarter team. Almost always, that has been a positive.

But when you need fourth-down stops and 82-yard drives to put away Florida, the idea of a four-quarter performance every week becomes less fun.

Only in Georgia’s win over Kentucky have the Bulldogs had a multi-score lead at the start of the fourth quarter. To date, the Bulldogs have played four games decided by eight points or less. Georgia found itself in three such regular-season games last year.

From 2021 through 2023, that happened only four times in total.

“If I could just write the script and say, yeah, let’s go up by 14, let’s go up by 21, (but) I don’t write the script,” Smart said. “So the script kind of plays out. I know that our kids are not uncomfortable playing from that. They don’t get chained to a scoreboard. There’s people that play chained to the scoreboard. Our guys are free of that, and they just play to the team and keep chopping.”

Saturday’s game against Mississippi State is set to be another one of those games. The line began the week with Georgia as a 7.5-point favorite, though there has been some movement to bump that up to 8.5 points.

Mississippi State brings plenty of challenges to the table, specifically with its passing offense. Led by wide receivers Brennan Thompson and Anthony Evans, a former Georgia Bulldog, Mississippi State can stretch the field vertically. That will challenge the Georgia defensive backs, who had issues against Tennessee earlier this season.

Georgia jumped to a big lead against Mississippi State last season, leading 34-10 in the third quarter. But Mississippi State kept chucking, and Georgia needed a 16-play touchdown drive that soaked nearly half a quarter off the clock to pull off the 41-31 win.

With Saturday’s game in Starkville, Mississippi, Georgia counts on having plenty of issues once again. Texas and Tennessee both needed overtime to escape with wins against Mississippi State.

“They’ve got no quit in them,” Smart said. “These guys have competed. They’ve been in every game they’ve played. They have upgraded the talent level since (coach Jeff Lebby has) been there. You look at the group he’s put together defensively, offensively and special teams. They’ve got really good players all over the field. Our guys are going to be up for a great challenge this week.”

As for why Georgia finds itself so often challenged this season, the Bulldogs are playing a more difficult schedule than what life was like when the SEC had divisions. Add in the transfer portal and the roster just is not what it used to be.

Consider that Evans ranks seventh in the SEC in receiving yards. Former Bulldog Damon Wilson, now of Missouri, ranks fifth in the SEC in sacks. In the past, Georgia may have been able to keep them on the roster. But after two years in Athens, both are thriving elsewhere.

That has pushed other, younger players up the roster. The hope is that one day they’ll be the seasoned veterans. Even at this point in the season, players such as Elijah Griffin and Elyiss Williams no longer are viewed as freshmen.

Georgia’s coach certainly seems to be at ease when things get tense, which likely only helps this young team.

“I don’t ever feel uncomfortable in a game based on the score,” Smart said. “I’m uncomfortable in how we play sometimes. It’s not about the fourth quarter, the first quarter, the halftime. It’s not about the score because we really don’t make it about that.”

Georgia trailed at halftime of the 2024 SEC championship game, yet found a way to win late. Georgia has followed that script often this season, much to Smart’s dismay.