Georgia running back Elijah Holyfield carries the ball down the sideline during the Bulldogs' home win against Georgia Tech on Saturday.ATHENS, Ga. - The inevitable question was asked, and Jake Fromm could only smile.
Fromm's Georgia Bulldogs had just finished off rival Georgia Tech 45-21 at Sanford Stadium on Saturday when the talk quickly turned to Alabama and this week's Southeastern Conference championship game. Fromm and his teammates had been forewarned to keep talk of the Crimson Tide to a minimum.
"I'm not supposed to talk about Alabama," the sophomore quarterback said with a wry grin. "We just want to focus on today and enjoy this win."
There were, however, a few who ventured into the subject. When asked if he thought the Bulldogs could beat the Tide, senior defensive end Jonathan Ledbetter had a short but decisive answer.
"Most definitely," he said. "I don't know why that's even a question. We proved last year we could play with them."
Smart gave the subject a little time but insisted the thought of revenge for last year's national championship near-miss was off base.
"It's not really about revenge for us at all," he said. "The media will make it like that, but to us it's the SEC East champion going to play in Atlanta against the SEC West champion. This is the next game for us, and we can focus on Alabama moving forward.
"What a great program and a great team. We know how good they are; we played them less than a year ago."
Seniors go out in style
Smart has a painful memory of walking out of Sanford Stadium in his final regular-season game as a player with a loss to Georgia Tech. He and the Bulldogs were determined not to let that happen to the current group Saturday.
"It's significant because I know what it's like to lose your last game at home to Tech," Smart said. "I know how it affected me. Every time I look at that picture from my senior day with my parents, I feel it."
This group of seniors represents the final recruiting class of former coach Mark Richt and his staff. Several in the class have left the program or have had their careers hampered by injury. The ones who made it were praised by Smart for making a big difference.
"They've bought in," he said. "They came in under a different regime, and they've bought into what we believe. That was a really big class here, but there's not a ton of them left. Juwan Taylor, Jonathan Ledbetter, Natrez Patrick - those guys have overcome so many things and have given so much back to Georgia. They just mean a lot to us."
Scout team praised
It's not often a big-time program's scout team is singled out, but the Bulldogs made it a point to do just that Saturday.
Having a week to prepare for Georgia Tech's cut-blocking scheme, Georgia made extensive use of scout-team players to replicate what the defensive starters would see Saturday. After the Bulldogs held Tech to 128 rushing yards - the Jackets came in leading the nation with 358 yards per game - Smart and his players made sure to reward the hard work.
"We had guys like Mason Wood, Prather Hudson, Steve Van Tiflin, Willie Erdman - all of them - who formed the Georgia Tech scout team this year," Smart said. "If you were to ask our regulars about practicing against them, they will tell you it was tough.
"Guys like that have to be selfless. They have to go out every day and cut starters. You are being asked to throw your body at a starter's knees. Just think about that. They went at it 100 snaps a day, 400 snaps in four practices blocking guys twice their size. We don't get the look today we had without them, so I can't say enough about what those guys did."
Added senior linebacker D'Andre Walker: "That is a different kind of offense, so we had to be ready for the challenge, and those guys made us ready. The scout team guys really made us buy into the plan. Heck, those guys ran the Georgia Tech offense better than Georgia Tech did."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.