Georgia began this season as the overwhelming No. 1 college football team.
It’s Texas impressively occupying the top spot now, with Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs on their way to Austin later this week.
One of the sport’s most anticipated games of the year is almost upon us, as No. 1 Texas will host No. 5 Georgia in a Saturday night Southeastern Conference showdown (7:30 on ABC) inside Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium. This is just the sixth meeting between the two tradition-rich programs and the first in Austin since 1958.
“This is the most complete team that we’ve seen or faced this year and probably in multiple years when you look at what they’re doing defensively, offensively and on special teams,” Smart said Monday during his weekly news conference. “It should be a great matchup, and this is really what you come to Georgia for — to play in these moments. I’m going to a place that I’ve never been, and I assume that none of our players have ever been there either for a game.
“I’m looking at it as an opportunity for us to get better, because that’s the most important thing. Can we show some kind of consistent improvement and play more consistent as a team?”
Georgia opened this season with a 34-3 shellacking of Clemson in Atlanta but has struggled on multiple occasions since during a 5-1 start that includes a 3-1 record in SEC play. The Bulldogs had a 13-12 escape of Kentucky in Lexington, fell behind Alabama 28-0 in an eventual 41-34 loss in Tuscaloosa, and had difficulties putting away Mississippi State this past Saturday in a 41-31 victory.
The Longhorns have encountered no close calls in their 6-0 start that has included a 31-12 thumping of defending national champion Michigan in Ann Arbor and this past weekend’s 34-3 whipping of Oklahoma in Dallas. Texas also has a 35-13 defeat of Mississippi State in its 2-0 league start, but Longhorns fourth-year coach Steve Sarkisian knows that Georgia is an entirely different beast.
Smart’s Bulldogs are 47-3 since the start of the 2021 season and have only lost to Alabama.
“They’ve kind of somewhat been the standard of college football for the last six or seven years,” Sarkisian said Monday in his news conference. “They’ve been to six of the last seven SEC championship games and won back-to-back national championships and competed for a third. They’ve recruited really, really well, and they’re well-coached.
“The moment won’t be too big for them coming into DKR, and we need DKR to be rocking.”
Texas has the best quarterback depth chart in the country with redshirt junior Quinn Ewers and redshirt freshman Arch Manning, who have combined to throw for 1,791 yards with 18 touchdowns and five interceptions. Ewers opened the door for Manning to shine due to an oblique strain but reclaimed the starting role against the Sooners.
A running back position that took some injury hits in August has thrived behind sophomore Quintrevion Wisner and junior Jaydon Blue, a pair of 6-foot, 200-pounders who have combined for 547 yards. Wisner rushed 13 times for 118 yards and a touchdown against Oklahoma.
“They lost a couple backs in preseason camp, and I thought, ‘Well, they’re not going to have it,'” Smart said. “These two backs they have are really good, and against Oklahoma, they got even better. There are not these weaknesses. They’re built around the offensive and defensive lines.
“Their record has improved every year, and their trenches have improved every year. They’re for real in the trenches. They’re built like an SEC team.”
Although Ewers and Manning have received their share of attention, and although Texas is racking up 495.7 yards per game, the Longhorns are also allowing just 229.7 yards a contest, and that’s a statistic that leads the nation.
“We’re not a one-dimensional defense,” Sarkisian said. “It has been difficult to run on us, and we haven’t given up explosive pass plays. You always try to look to gain an advantage, but we’ve been playing really well as a defense across the board.”
Sideline collision
Smart on Monday discussed Saturday night’s incident in which he bumped Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren on the sideline.
“I didn’t even realize that I had run into him,” Smart said. “I reached out to (Mississippi State coach Jeff) Lebby that night and talked to him. He said the kid was great. Yesterday, I talked to Mike and told him I had no intentions or ill will towards him at all. If you’ve ever been on the sideline in a game, it’s pandemonium. It’s really pandemonium when you’re trying to change personnel, and you only have three to four seconds to do it.
“We were bad off in a bad personnel grouping against an empty set that we actually messed up the week before. I was trying to get to (defensive coordinator Glenn) Schumann to get that changed.”
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey weighed in on the collision by releasing a statement.
“Coaches cannot make contact with an opposing player,” Sankey said. “This play should have resulted in the enforcement of an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. As Kirby discussed in his press conference today, he has appropriately reached out to Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby and quarterback Michael Van Buren.
“I am confident the contact was not intentional and the clear expectation is this conduct will not happen again.”
Bulldogs bites
Georgia redshirt sophomore running back Branson Robinson is dealing with an MCL injury and is expected to be out multiple weeks. … The Bulldogs are just 1-4 against Texas, with their lone win being the 10-9 upset in the Cotton Bowl after the 1983 season. … Georgia has allowed one punt return this season for minus-4 yards.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.