Two games this week will help define Georgia’s football season: Friday’s Arkansas-at-Missouri game, which will determine whether the Bulldogs play for the SEC championship, and Saturday’s Georgia Tech-at-Georgia game, which will determine a year’s worth of in-state bragging rights.
The Bulldogs can do nothing about what will happen in Columbia, Mo., so they vow to keep undivided attention on what will happen in Sanford Stadium.
“The goal is to be 100 percent focused on our opponent this week, like any other week,” coach Mark Richt said Sunday night. “That’s going to be what I’m going to be preaching and that’s what we’re going to be doing.
“We’ve had some distractions this year from time to time,” Richt added in an understatement, “and it hasn’t seemed to affect us, in my opinion. I think we’ve done a very good job of focusing on the things we can control. … This (Tech) game kind of stands alone. It’s almost a season within itself. So I really believe we’ll be ready to go.”
Asked if Tech is Georgia’s most important rival, Richt said: “It is this week, I can tell you that.” Richt noted that UGA has a number of rivals, some of which might stir stronger feelings in one part of the state than in others — Florida, Auburn, Tennessee and South Carolina among them. But he said he believes the Yellow Jackets are the Bulldogs’ biggest rival statewide.
“I think everyone in this state can agree that Georgia Tech is the most important one,” Richt said. “If you took a poll of every Dog out there, I think they would say Georgia Tech.”
Saturday’s regular-season finale will mark the first time since 1942 that Georgia and Georgia Tech enter their annual meeting with at least nine wins apiece. The game will match the SEC’s highest-scoring team against the ACC’s highest-scoring team, Georgia averaging 43.3 points per game and Tech 37.8. Between them, the teams run for 588.4 yards per game — Tech 327.9 and Georgia 260.5.
“This week is going to be crazy,” Georgia tailback Nick Chubb said. “With no school (because of Thanksgiving break), we can just focus on Tech the whole week.”
Georgia (9-2, 6-2 SEC) had hoped to clinch a berth in the SEC Championship game this past weekend, but Missouri’s 29-21 win at Tennessee kept the Tigers (9-2, 6-1) atop the Eastern Division standings. Now the only way Georgia can play for the SEC title is if Arkansas (6-5, 2-5) beats Missouri to create a tie between Missouri and Georgia atop the East. In that case, the Bulldogs would win the tiebreaker by virtue of their 34-0 victory at Missouri on Oct. 11.
Missouri has won five consecutive games since being blown out by Georgia but must get past an Arkansas team that has shut out SEC West opponents in its past two games, beating LSU 17-0 and Ole Miss 30-0.
The Arkansas-Missouri game kicks off at 2:30 p.m. Friday and will be nationally televised on CBS. The Bulldogs may sneak a peek, even as they insist they won’t be distracted from the noon Saturday engagement in Sanford Stadium.
“It’s Georgia-Georgia Tech. It’s good old-fashioned hate,” Georgia senior defensive back Damian Swann said.
“There’s a certain way that we want to go out and an impression that we want to make,” senior wide receiver Chris Conley said. “Now we just have to go out and practice hard this week and get it done.”
Georgia has won three consecutive games since a Nov. 1 loss to Florida and continued to climb back up the national rankings Sunday, moving to No. 8 in the Associated Press poll and No. 9 in the coaches’ poll. Georgia Tech is ranked No. 16 by the AP and No. 15 by the coaches.
Georgia opened as a 14 1/2-point favorite over Tech in Las Vegas.
“I think we’re playing our best ball,” said Georgia quarterback Hutson Mason, who leads the SEC in passing efficiency and pass completion percentage. “I think we have a lot of momentum going for us right now. Momentum and confidence are definitely good to have. Hopefully we’ll keep that going into this week.”
About the Author
