ATHENS — Raise your hand if in August you thought Georgia-Missouri was going to be maybe the most critical SEC East matchup of the season. Seeing none, it doesn’t matter.
That’s what Saturday’s meeting between the hedges is, effectively an Eastern Division playoff. The Bulldogs (8-0, 5-0 SEC), as expected, arrive at this juncture undefeated and maybe even slightly miffed after receiving a No. 2 distinction in the first College Football Playoff ranking this week. Georgia carries into the game an SEC-record streak of 20 consecutive weeks as the No. 1 team in the Associated Press poll, third-longest in college football history.
Conversely, the 12th-ranked Tigers (7-1, 3-1) unexpectedly arrive at Sanford Stadium as the SEC East’s team to beat. Tennessee (6-2, 3-2), thought to be that team in the preseason, already has conference losses to Florida and Alabama.
Nevertheless, the remainder of the SEC slate has a decidedly round-robin flavor to it. They all count and these three all still have to play each other.
“Eliah’s a great coach, and they have a great team,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said of Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz. “They have 15-16 returning starters, they’re good on offense, defense and special teams. It’s reflected in their record and the way they’ve played at a really high level.”
Missouri hasn’t skated to reach its lofty perch. It has road wins at Kentucky and Vanderbilt and a top-15 victory (at the time) over Kansas State.
As for the Bulldogs, they were demoted to No. 2 by the CFP selection committee because of what computes as a low-rated schedule. That metric ratchets up considerably in the coming weeks. After the Tigers, No. 10 Ole Miss (7-1, 4-1) comes to Athens and Georgia travels to Knoxville to take on 17th-ranked Tennessee at Neyland Stadium.
But there will be nary a glance down the road past Missouri for the Bulldogs. They didn’t win 41 of their past 42 games by getting ahead of themselves.
“One thing I can say is that we’re definitely aware of how good those guys are,” senior center Sedrick Van Pran said. “They’re a tremendous team. You can see that just watching some of the games on TV.”
Here are five things to watch heading into Saturday’s kickoff, Georgia’s fifth in the past seven games in the CBS 3:30 p.m. time slot:
Hedges haunted for visitors
The biggest thing that Missouri must overcome Saturday is playing between the hedges. The Bulldogs are 42-4 under Smart at Sanford Stadium. Three of those losses came in Smart’s first season.
Since the home field was named for late coach and Athletic Director Vince Dooley, Georgia is 39-1 playing on it. A win Saturday will tie the home-game win streak of 24 games established from 1980-83.
Only two of those games were decided by a touchdown or less: 16-13 over Texas A&M in 2019 and 31-24 over Mississippi State in 2020. The Bulldogs are a 15.5-point favorite over Missouri in this one. The Tigers vow to not be overwhelmed.
“We’re just trying to be 1-0,” Drinkwitz said. “The narrative is gonna be if we (lose), the season is over and there’s nothing left to play for. ... If we win, it’s gonna be assumed that we’re gonna win the East. Neither is true.”
While Missouri vows to “ignore the outside noise,” the noise inside Sanford Stadium could also be a problem.
Lessons from 2022
Coming between the annual rivalry game against Florida in Jacksonville and next week’s possible top-10 matchup against Ole Miss, there’s some thought that Saturday versus Missouri could set up as the consummate trap game. But between the Tigers’ ranking and record this season and what happened last year, there seems little chance of that.
Meeting Oct. 1, 2022, at Faurot Field in Columbia, early turnovers had the Bulldogs facing a pair of 13-point deficits in the first half. They were staring at a 10-point Missouri lead well into the fourth quarter when quarterback Stetson Bennett rallied Georgia to victory with a pair of lengthy TD drives.
The Bulldogs say the come-from-behind win was one of the best things that happened to them.
“A lot of adversity in that game,” senior defensive back Tykee Smith said. “Any SEC road game is a tough environment, but it was great just seeing the team come together and not bow our heads. Being able to battle together and come back, when the Ohio State moment came (in their national semifinal), we definitely lived in that moment when we played Missouri, so we knew how to handle it.”
Georgia also trailed the Buckeyes by two touchdowns heading into the fourth quarter of their CFP semifinal game in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. The Bulldogs won 42-41.
Quarterback duel
For the second consecutive week, the Bulldogs game will match two of the best quarterbacks in the SEC. Right now, LSU’s Jayden Daniels is carrying the banner as the conference’s top signal-caller, but Georgia’s Carson Beck and Missouri’s Brady Cook aren’t far behind when it comes to exemplary play.
In his first year as Georgia’s starting quarterback, Beck out-dueled Florida’s Graham Mertz, a 42-game college veteran, in a 43-20 win in Jacksonville. With his 315-yard, two-touchdown performance against the Gators, Beck enters Week 10 completing 73% of his passes for 2,462 yards and 14 touchdowns with only four interceptions. The Bulldogs’ offensive line deserves a cap-tip because Beck has been sacked only five times in eight games, and for giving Beck 172.2 rushing yards.
Cook, a three-year starter, is playing the best ball of his career by far. Under the direction of first-year offensive coordinator Kirby Moore, he has completed 69.8% of his passes for 2,259 yards with 15 touchdowns and three interceptions. Like Beck, Cook benefits from a powerful run game led by senior Cody Schrader and distributes the ball among 10 receivers via run-pass option and play-action concepts.
Early in the week, Smart complimented Cook on his quickly he gets the ball out of his hands — as quick as 2.2 seconds on some plays. Nevertheless, Cook has been sacked 13 times.
Kicker confrontation
Missouri’s biggest win this season came against then-No. 15 Kansas State. The Tigers were able to do it because Harrison Mevis was able to make a 61-yard field goal. The 5-foot-11, 243-pound senior kicker broke the SEC record for longest field previously held by Georgia’s Kevin Butler. The kick went through the uprights at the end of regulation for a 30-27 victory that sent fans rushing onto the field and goal posts crashing to the ground.
Mevis made five field goals, including two from more than 50 yards, in last year’s game against Georgia.
“One of the best in football,” Smart said.
Interestingly, Georgia’s freshman kicker Peyton Woodring actually is having a better overall season, relatively at least. Though his long field goal is just 42 yards, Woodring is 12-of-15 on the season and he has made his past 10.
The Bulldogs are holding their own in other areas of special teams. They blocked their first punt of the season for a safety last week against Florida, punter Brett Thorson is averaging 42.6 yards on 20 punts and has had only eight returned, and Mekhi Mews is averaging 12.1 yards on punt returns and 27.1 on kickoffs.
Injury watch
The Bulldogs are hoping junior offensive tackle Amarius Mims will be able to play for the first time since Week 3. Nearly six weeks removed from TightRope surgery on his left ankle, Mims traveled with Georgia to Jacksonville on Saturday and warmed up but did not play.
Tight end Brock Bowers is out, having had the same surgery Oct. 16. The Bulldogs are hoping to get contributions from safeties David Daniel-Sisavanh (hamstring) and Dan Jackson (knee), who have had to sit out the past two games with injuries.
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