Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray celebrates with Bulldogs fans following Saturday’s 17-9 upset of previously undefeated Florida.Last year’s football game between Georgia and Ole Miss was dubbed the “Hot Seat Bowl” due to the uncertainty surrounding coaches Mark Richt and Houston Nutt.
This time around, it’s a lot more meaningful.
Georgia took control of the Southeastern Conference’s East Division race this past weekend with a 17-9 victory over previously undefeated Florida and needs a win Saturday at Sanford Stadium to inch closer to a second straight trip to the Georgia Dome for the league championship game. Ole Miss is coming off a 30-27 triumph at Arkansas and is the surprise story of the SEC, with Hugh Freeze’s Rebels needing one more win to attain bowl eligibility after last season’s 2-10 collapse that resulted in Nutt’s firing.
“What happens is that when you start tasting success, you start getting excited and you start believing,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said Sunday afternoon. “They’re on the rise right now, and Coach Freeze has got them going. We know that when you play teams that are getting used to winning, they are very hard to beat.”
The Georgia-Ole Miss game was picked up Sunday by CBS and will kick off at 3:30 p.m. CBS has never televised a meeting between the Bulldogs and Rebels, whose last matchup in Athens in 2007 wasn’t televised at all.