Georgia

Playoff? Georgia football has much to clean up after Florida win and Ole Miss looming

Published

2 months ago

November 3, 2024

Playoff? Georgia football has much to clean up after Florida win and Ole Miss looming

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Kirby Smart settled into his seat for his postgame press conference in EverBank Stadium Saturday night and sounded a little bit like his No. 2 Georgia football team just lost.

“Ooh, that was a tough one guys,” Smart said. “We didn’t play our best game.”

Georgia had just put away Florida 34-20 with a pair of touchdowns in the final 4:01 to go to 7-1.

And lookie, now. Georgia is tied for first place in the SEC with Texas AM at 5-1 after South Carolina’s 44-20 takedown of the Aggies Saturday night. Tennessee at 4-1 and LSU and Texas at 3-1 follow. The top two teams in the now division-less SEC will play in the conference championship game with the winner getting a first-round playoff bye.

Georgia has enough on its plate what with cleaning up from its win over the Gators—first and foremost the turnovers after three more Carson Beck interceptions—and a big test Saturday at No. 18 Ole Miss.

All that College Football Playoff talk this week with the first rankings coming out Tuesday night will be viewed as just outside noise inside the program.

Playoffs? Playoffs?!

Smart didn’t quite turn into Jim Mora Sr. when the subject came up on his radio show before the Florida game.

It offered a window into his public stance on all the talk about the 12-team playoff.

“Everybody wants to talk about it,” Smart said. “Everybody wants to say this and that. You got to do this, you got to do that? Look, man, you’ve got to take care of business that week.”

Smart should write a thank you card to quarterback Jaxson Dart.

Ole Miss’s offense came to life Saturday after mostly underwhelming during SEC play. Dart threw for 515 yards and 6 touchdowns on 25 of 31 passing in a 63-31 rout of Arkansas.

The Rebels will go up against a Georgia team coming off a second straight game with Beck throwing three interceptions. It was a comedown type of game for the Bulldogs after the win at No. 1 Texas two weeks earlier, but Georgia is still in good shape to make the playoff.

“We really didn’t get stopped unless I, you know, turned the ball over,” Beck said. “It’s a good thing for our offense and a bad thing for me.”

Georgia did have 5 pass plays of 21 or more yards including 25 and 34 yards to Arian Smith.

Smart said Georgia needs to prevent the interceptions, but also won the game because it can wing it.

“I mean, we’re not going to not throw it,” Smart said. “Like, he throws the ball well. We think that we’ve got a really good pass game, we got a great pass pro, we got good wideouts, and we got a really good quarterback. “

Georgia’s defense held Florida to 228 yards, the lowest by an SEC team against the Bulldogs since Vanderbilt’s 219 on Oct. 14, 2023.

Granted, the Gators were down to a third-string quarterback after DJ Lagway left the game with a hamstring injury in the second quarter.

Georgia was down not only two starters in the secondary in the first half for targeting but JaCorey Thomas, forced into the starting lineup, left the game for a span injured during the first half and Georgia turned to Kyren Jones.

In addition, return man Anthony Evans was out with a hamstring injury. Malaki Starks handled punt returns and Cash Jones kickoff returns.

Georgia could use all the healthy bodies it can get.

It will play its fourth game this season against a top 20 opponent in Oxford with a fifth the week after with Tennessee.

“We’ve got another big game next week and then another big game after that and another big after that,” Beck said. “That’s why you come to Georgia.”

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Georgia

Texas ran all over Clemson, and the Longhorns may have Georgia to thank for that

Published

2 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

Texas ran all over Clemson, and the Longhorns may have Georgia to thank for that

AUSTIN — Yeah, yeah, sure. Georgia has beaten Texas twice already this year. The Bulldogs have done their best to ruin a perfectly good season on the Forty Acres. If not for Georgia, well, Texas wouldn’t even have had to go to work Saturday.

But hear us out: Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

After all, Texas got another Bevo Walk, one more time for an experienced senior class to soak in the atmosphere of 101,150 at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. It gave the Longhorns one more opportunity to hear Matthew McConaughey get weird on the sound system. Most importantly, it gave the Longhorns another opportunity to get back to what they actually do really well: Run the damn ball.

In a 38-24 win over Clemson in the first round of the College Football Playoff, Texas outmuscled and then outran the overmatched Tigers defense for a season-high 292 yards and four touchdowns. Texas will take its regrouped ground game back to Atlanta, site of the most recent loss to Georgia, to play Arizona State in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl on Jan. 1.

Texas split things up pretty evenly: Quintrevion Wisner and Jaydon Blue each got two. Wisner did most of the hard running early; Blue — who had touchdown runs of 38 and 77 yards, the latter coming after Clemson had closed within one score — did the speed work. End of the night: Blue had 146 yards, Wisner, who didn’t play in the fourth quarter to rest a knee he “banged” late in the first half, had 110.

It was, in a lot of ways, just like coach Steve Sarkisian drew it up after Georgia held the Longhorns to 31 yards 10 days ago in a 22-19 overtime loss in the SEC Championship.

“One of the first bullet points I put up in the room was ‘run to win,’” Sarkisian said of his workweek message to his team. “We needed to run to win this game. And we’re going to need to run the football to advance in these playoffs. That’s what playoff football is about. So, we really challenged them on the run game.”

They responded. Just as they did the first time Georgia beat them back in October and held the running game to 29 yards. Texas followed that up with three 200-plus-yard games on the ground in the five games ‘twixt Georgia meetings.

Against Clemson, it was important to demonstrate that the issue was just a Georgia thing. Clemson was the perfect opponent for Texas to reestablish the ground game. Clemson entered the playoff ranked 73rd in the country — last among the playoff teams — in run defense. There was a weakness to exploit and eventually a message to send to the rest of the remaining playoff field: Sarkisian may have been a quarterback once and may remain a quarterback at heart, but Texas will run to win. Arizona State, consider your Sun Devils warned.

“The run game is really important for us on a lot of levels,” Sarkisian said. “One, our offense is better when we can run it, because then the balance can really kick in for us. It opens up a lot that we do. When we can run it effectively, teams have to prepare for a lot when they’re getting ready to play us.”

On Saturday, this is how effective Texas’ running game was: It literally didn’t matter who was where on the offensive line. Texas got left tackle Kelvin Banks, who missed the SEC championship game, back Saturday, but lost center Jake Majors and right tackle Cameron Williams on successive plays late in the first half. Guard Hayden Conner moved over to center and Cole Hutson moved into the offensive line, which was jumbled to say the least. Worked good enough to spring Blue on a 77-yard TD run through the right side three plays after Clemson had cut a onetime 28-10 lead to 31-24. On both of Blue’s long touchdown runs, Ewers had checked off a pass play after reading the Clemson defensive set.

It was also good vindication for Blue, who dealt with issues holding on to the ball earlier this season, and had fallen into more of a secondary role to Wisner.

“The guys up front, those guys paved the way for me,” Blue said. “We made a big emphasis that we’re going to have to run the ball in order to win this game.”

For that, Texas can somehow thank Georgia for the reminder.

So far, so good: See photos from Texas’ first-round College Football Playoff win over Clemson in Austin

Find more Texas coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

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Georgia

Notre Dame vs. Georgia: Odds and how to watch the Allstate Sugar Bowl

Published

10 hours ago

December 21, 2024

Press Room

Notre Dame vs. Georgia: Odds and how to watch the Allstate Sugar Bowl

The first round of the College Football Playoff lived up to expectations, as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish claimed a quarterfinal spot after defeating the Indiana Hoosiers in snowy South Bend, Indiana. The Fighting Irish will face the No. 2 seeded Georgia Bulldogs in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish secured their first playoff victory in the new era of the College Football Playoff with a 27-17 win over Indiana. Quarterback Riley Leonard delivered a stellar performance against the Hoosiers, completing 71.9% of his passes for 201 yards, one touchdown, and one interception while also scoring a touchdown on the ground. On defense, safety Xavier Watts was the standout player, recording 10 tackles and an interception to help the Fighting Irish clinch the victory.

The Bulldogs, who received a bye, are gearing up for a run at the College Football Playoff without their starting quarterback, Carson Beck. He will likely be sidelined due to an elbow injury on his throwing arm, which he sustained during the final play of the first half in the SEC Championship game against Texas. This injury forced him to leave the game early. Sophomore Gunner Stockton stepped in and successfully led the Bulldogs to a 22-19 victory. Gunner has a completion rate of 78.1% and has thrown for 206 yards in the three games he played this season. He is expected to lead the offense moving forward.

Here is everything to know ahead of kickoff at the All-State Sugar Bowl.

Allstate Sugar Bowl odds, lines: Notre Dame vs. Georgia

The Georgia Bulldogs are favorites to defeat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, according to the BetMGM college football odds.

Odds as of afternoon on Saturday, Dec. 21.

Spread: Georgia (-1.5)
Moneylines: Georgia (-120); Notre Dame (+102)
Over/under: 44.5

How to watch Notre Dame vs. Georgia in the Allstate Sugar Bowl

Date: Wednesday, Jan. 1
Time: 8:45 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Stream: Fubo
Where: Caesars Superdome (New Orleans, LA)

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Georgia

Georgia Disaster Recovery Centers to be closed for Christmas, New Year holidays

Published

18 hours ago

December 21, 2024

Press Room

Georgia Disaster Recovery Centers to be closed for Christmas, New Year holidays

ATLANTA, Ga. (WALB) – All Georgia Disaster Recovery Centers will be closed for the holidays.

For the upcoming Christmas holiday, the centers will be closed from Tuesday, Dec. 24, until Thursday, Dec. 26.

The centers will be closed from Tuesday, Dec. 31, until Thursday, Jan. 2, for the New Year holiday.

All centers are also closed on Sundays.

While the centers are closed, you can call the FEMA helpline at (800) 621-3362, or apply or check your application on https://www.disasterassistance.gov/. The helpline will be closed on Dec. 25 and Jan. 1.

Survivors may visit any one of the FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers throughout the state to apply for assistance. Click here to find a center near you.

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