Georgia players consider importance of securing College Football Playoff bye, extra rest

The Georgia Bulldogs played a pretty impressive regular season in the 2024 campaign, using a hard-hitting defense and their multiple offensive weapons to fuel them to a 11-2 overall record. The CFP selection committee thought highly of the 2024 SEC Champions and penciled them in with a No. 2 seed in the upcoming 12-team College Football Playoff.

And since they earned one of the top four overall seeds, the Bulldogs will get a bye during the first week, earning a week of extra rest, before facing off against their first opponent in the CFP Quarterfinals. On Sunday, Georgia players discussed the extra week of rest in the CFP.

“I think it’s great. We get a chance to continue to get better, recover, and take care of our bodies and stuff like that,” Daylon Everette said.

“Yeah, I think anybody at this point in the season could use some time off. And I think that’s huge just to get back and work on ourselves and try to get healthier,” Tate Ratledge explained.

Georgia has battled their way to 11-2 and the No. 2 overall seed in the 2024 College Football Playoffs. It certainly wasn’t handed to them. We got plenty of evidence of that in their past two games. The first of which was an absolute classic, a 44-42 victory over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in eight overtimes. It was without a doubt, one of the best games of the 2024 college football season.

Georgia trailed 17-0 at halftime, but managed to battle all the way back to tie it at the end of the second half. The Bulldogs outscored the Yellow Jackets 27-10 in the second half to force overtime. And from then on, it was an absolute marathon of a game in what will go down as one of the longest college football games of all-time. Georgia freshman running back Nate Frazier ran for a two-point conversion to win it.

And on Saturday night in the 2024 SEC Championship Game, the Bulldogs managed to pull off another thrilling win, a 22-19 win in overtime over Texas. Quarterback Carson Beck was knocked out of the game at the end of the first half, and didn’t return. Backup quarterback Gunner Stockton came in and completed 12 of 16 passes for 71 yards, while tossing in one interception.

The No. 2 seeded Georgia Bulldogs will await in the Quarterfinals of the CFP, where they will face off the winner of the Indiana and Notre Dame matchup in the first round.