Georgia
Georgia Bulldogs talk expectations at SEC Media Days
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – SEC Media Days are raging on in Dallas, Texas.
Kirby Smart and his Georgia Bulldogs stepped up to the mic to help set the stage for what should be another exciting season of football between the hedges.
After just barely missing the opportunity to complete the three-peat last year, the Dawgs are back, barking louder than ever.
With Quarterback Carson Beck returning for one last ride and their defense getting bigger and faster, the Dawgs will be in a position to compete for their third national championship in the last four seasons.
Kirby says his dawgs are ready for the challenge of this new 16-team SEC and a much more difficult schedule.
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“Coming out of spring, I love the practice environment, the competitive nature between the offense and defense, the battles we had on the field like the practices were really spirited, it seemed like. And I enjoy that. I think when you have good, spirited practices, they get more out of them,” said Smart.
Beck said: “I think over the course of last year if you go look a game on and then you go look at game 40 and it’s not even the same quarterback and you know, making the decision to come back this year, I’m excited to see what the progression from Game 15 to whatever X amount of games we might play this year is going to look like.”
All eyes will be on number 15 both in Athens and around the country, because according to most sportsbooks out there, Beck is either the favorite or tied for the best odds to win the Heisman Trophy this year.
Beck threw for just under 4,000 yards and had 30 total touchdowns in 2023.
With Brock Bowers, Ladd Mcconkey and Kendall Milton moving on to the NFL, he’ll have some new weapons this year, but Qb1 still believes the best is yet to come.
“When you focus on the team and you really put other people before yourself and you are selfless and you focus on your agency, we focus on our line, you focus on the tight end, we focus on the defense, focus on the team as a whole. It kind of takes all that, you know, outside noise and pressure of these individual awards and individual statistics, and it puts it on, okay, let’s win this week. And then that’s within the next week and then so on, and so forth. And when those things happen and you can focus on the team and everybody on the team is on that same mindset, that’s when those individual kinds of awards start to happen,” said Beck.
In addition to that tough loss to Alabama in the SEC championship game, one thing that kept Georgia out of the playoff last year was their strength of schedule.
That won’t be a problem this year because the Dawgs will have their hands full with tough games against Clemson to open up the season and battles with Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss all on the road.
Mykel Williams, defensive line, said: “A personal goal I have this year is to win and win a lot of games. The game plan behind that is to go in week in and week out and do the things necessary to win.”
Malaki Starks, defensive back, said: “Complacency gets you passed up. You know, if you’re flat-lining, people who are consistently going are going to pass you at some point. The goal is to not get passes, keep going. You know, I feel like especially on defense, there’s nothing that you can’t get better at, nothing. You can’t grow into the best as the goal is just to keep growing day by day.”
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Gulfstream recently announced a $5 million investment in Georgia education, welcoming students and leaders to its Savannah headquarters.
ATHENS, Ga. – Designated hitter Daniel Jackson and centerfielder Rylan Lujo combined for nine RBI Sunday, leading fifth-ranked Georgia to a 12-1 win over LSU at Foley Field.
Georgia improved to 41-11 overall, 21-6 in the SEC, while LSU dropped to 29-24 overall and 9-18 in conference play.
The Tigers return to action at 6:30 p.m. CT Thursday when they play host to Florida in Game 1 of a three-game SEC series in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field. Thursday’s game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network and streamed on SEC Network +.
“Georgia won the moments in this series,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “They’re going to score, so you’ve got to capitalize against them when you have scoring opportunities on offense.”
Georgia starting pitcher Caden Aoki (8-0) was the winner, limiting LSU to one run on four hits in 5.0 innings with two walks and seven strikeouts.
LSU right-hander Casan Evans (2-3), making his first appearance since April 17 versus Texas A&M, started the game Sunday and was charged with the loss, working 1.2 innings and allowing four runs on four hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
“I thought Casan’s stuff looked great, and that’s good for him from a health standpoint,” Johnson said. “He’s a guy that the more he pitches, the better he is, so there might have been a little bit of rust, but I thought he competed fine.”
Georgia struck for four runs in the bottom of the second inning in an outburst highlighted by Jackson’s two-out, two-run single and an RBI single by second baseman Ryan Black.
The Tigers narrowed the gap to 4-1 in the third when designated hitter Omar Serna Jr. delivered an RBI single.
Georgia extended its lead to 7-1 in the fourth as Jackson launched a two-run homer and centerfielder Lujo lined a run-scoring single.
Lujo unloaded a grand slam in the fifth, giving the Bulldogs an 11-1 advantage.
The Georgia baseball team had long since poured out of the Foley Field home dugout and the water bottles that were thrown on the field in jubilation had been cleaned up.
The Bulldogs celebration that carried into center field after a 13-8 victory on Saturday night over LSU on May 9 had ended and players had doused coach Wes Johnson with blue sports drink.
Now, some 20 minutes later, it was postgame photo time for the freshly minted 2026 SEC regular season champions.
They gathered in front of the spot on the right field wall where the previous seven seasons of Georgia SEC championships were listed, the last in 2008. Above them on the video board was a graphic that recognized this year’s team as SEC champions.
“Watching the program grow in such a shot amount of time, it’s awesome,” said pitcher Paul Farley, who has been with the Bulldogs for all three seasons with Johnson and got the win in relief Saturday. “We’ve got four SEC games left and to be able to hang that up there the SEC champs already it’s amazing.”
Farley was speaking figuratively because the 2026 numbers weren’t on the outfield fence just yet.
Fifth-ranked Georgia (40-11, 20-6 SEC) still has a chance to put a College World Series trip up there in left field for the first time since 2008 and in a best case scenario add another national championship year in right field with the 1990 season.
“SEC champs is great, but obviously we want to do bigger and better things,” Farley said.
LSU, the team that won it all last season, was still around having a postgame talk on the artificial turf field long after the game ended.
Johnson was with LSU in 2023 as pitching coach when it won another College World Series.
“It’s massive,” Johnson said of this latest championship. “Anytime you can win this league, man, it’s so hard. Then win it outright. It’s something you want to check off on your list of things you’ve ever accomplished. It’s 10 weekends of just meat house grinding.”
Johnson said he didn’t know that the dominoes had fallen Saturday to set up Georgia being able to clinch except that he saw that Texas lost at Tennessee as the result flashed on the scoreboard.
Texas A&M also lost twice at Ole Miss to set up the clinch for Georgia.
“I’m calling pitches, I’m locked in,” Johnson said.
He said assistant coach Will Coggin told him when the game ended that ‘We’re champs.’”
Many of the players knew.
“We had a few inside operatives, I’d say, tell us,” Farley said.
Shortstop Kolby Branch said he didn’t know “until the water bottles started flying.”
Branch said another Georgia team loaded with transfers grew closer in the fall and built relationships that have turned into wins this season.
Johnson said winning the regular season title in his third season as coach in the age of the transfer portal and NIL “means a lot.”
Johnson mentioned Farley, Branch and Tre Phelps being at Georgia for all three of his seasons.
“Seeing where we were in the first fall, we forget this used to be dirt and grass,” Johnson said standing on on turf field. “And we didn’t have the cool building and we only had one batting cage, all the stuff we’ve been able to do since we’ve been here. The other side is just understanding true belief and understanding what guys can do.”
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