Georgia football coach Kirby Smart got right to the point Monday afternoon.
His Bulldogs will be facing the Ole Miss Rebels on New Year’s night in the Sugar Bowl and not the Lane Kiffin Rebels.
Ole Miss played its first game under new head coach Pete Golding on Saturday afternoon, with offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. calling the plays during a 41-10 trampling of Tulane in a College Football Playoff first-round pairing in Oxford. Weis, tight ends coach Joe Cox and receivers coach George McDonald have been hired by Kiffin at LSU but were — unlike Kiffin — allowed to remain with the Rebels for their playoff drive.
“The offensive coordinator and the staff is still all there, so they aren’t going to overhaul and make large changes,” Smart said in a news conference. “They’ve got something that really works well. They’re really high-powered and really explosive. They’ve got great wideouts and a really good tight end and one of the best backs in the country and arguably the quarterback who may be playing the best in the country in terms of his ability to make throws in all areas. He’s just as elite as the last time we played them or even more elite because he’s got more experience and more confidence.
“Lane has something to do with that, because he helped build it and get them there, but Charlie has done a tremendous job calling the plays.”
Saturday’s win by the Rebels was similar to the 45-10 thrashing Ole Miss applied to Tulane on Sept. 20. The Rebels led the first meeting 23-3 entering the fourth quarter and led Saturday’s rematch 27-3 at the same juncture.
Ole Miss couldn’t replicate the 548 yards during its September slaughter but wasn’t too far off with a robust 497.
“I had zero concern with Charlie Weis calling this game for this one reason — Charlie Weis could not afford not to call a hell of a game, right?” Golding said Saturday. “All he’s heard his whole life is, ‘Lane Kiffin’s offense. Lane Kiffin’s offense. Lane Kiffin’s offense.’ This was his one opportunity for people to realize Charlie Weis calls the offense just like he’s done all year, and he did a great job of it.
“I had no concern on that because the last thing Charlie wanted to do is come out here and lay an egg.”
Golding was then asked how nice would it be these next couple of weeks to hear just about Georgia versus Ole Miss and not about Kiffin.
“We’ll see,” he responded. “Y’all control that.”
Golding on Monday afternoon explained that the staff and players reviewed Saturday’s triumph and went through the corrections Sunday night before moving on to Georgia on Monday morning in a walkthrough format. The Rebels will now have some time off before players reconvene in Oxford on Christmas night, with Friday’s workout scheduled to be like a Monday practice during the fall.
The Sugar Bowl will be a quarterfinal in the 12-team CFP, and it is scheduled to kick off shortly after 8 Eastern on ESPN.
Georgia and Ole Miss are playing for a second time this season, with the Bulldogs having outscored the Rebels 17-0 during the fourth quarter of their Oct. 18 encounter in Athens to rally for a 43-35 victory. Ole Miss tallied touchdowns on its first five possessions, but Georgia overcame that behind redshirt junior quarterback Gunner Stockton, who completed 26 of 31 passes for 289 yards and four touchdowns and rushed 10 times for 59 yards and a score.
“Hopefully we can get them to punt at least one time,” Golding said Monday. “That would be a good start.”
Both teams are playing rematches for a second consecutive game, with Georgia having defeated Alabama 28-7 in the Southeastern Conference championship contest. Smart is 4-0 in rematch chances in his 10 seasons with the Bulldogs, avenging a loss to Auburn in 2017 and a loss to Alabama in 2021 before sweeping Texas last year and settling the score with the Crimson Tide this season.
“It’s really overrated when it comes to rematches and things like that,” Smart said. “How you play defines what the outcome of the game is. It’s your ability to be explosive, to not turn the ball over and to win situational football. It really has very little to do with the time before you played them.
“Everybody is going to watch the time before, because you’ve got to look at the matchups, but I don’t think either team is exactly the same. Both teams have evolved.”
Focused on now
Smart was asked Monday how he’s balancing Sugar Bowl preparation with roster management, given that the NCAA transfer portal window will essentially open as soon as the Sugar Bowl ends.
“We’re not focused on roster management,” Smart said. “We’re focused on prep and getting better. For a while, we’ve looked at ourselves and have asked each player, ‘Did you come here to develop? Did you truly come here to develop?’ If you did, then all your buddies are out their announcing that they’re going in the portal or announcing that they’re re-signing.
“How about announcing that you’re getting better and that you’re going to practice and actually do what players in the 20 and 30 years before you did, which was practice in December and get better. If you’re going to play somewhere else, you need to get better. If you’re going to play here, you need to get better.”
SEC versus SEC
The upcoming Sugar Bowl will mark the fourth time in its history that two SEC teams have squared off, and all four will have involved the Rebels.
Ole Miss lost the Sugar Bowl following the 1952 season to Georgia Tech 24-7, with Bobby Dodd’s Yellow Jackets having won the league’s regular-season title. The Rebels defeated LSU in New Orleans 21-0 after the 1959 season to avenge an earlier 7-3 loss to Billy Cannon’s Tigers in Baton Rouge, but they lost to Alabama 12-7 after the 1963 season.
Alabama and LSU met in New Orleans following the 2011 season, but that was in the BCS championship game.
Arrests addressed
Monday marked the first opportunity for Smart to publicly discuss the misdemeanor shoplifting arrests of two freshmen — starting guard Dontrell Glover and reserve running back Bo Walker — at a Walmart in Athens on Dec. 12.
“I’m disappointed in the decision-making with both of those guys,” Smart said. “We always say that decision-making is a skill, and they made poor decisions and paid a consequence for that and are continuing to pay a consequence for that. I hope both of them make better decisions in the future.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.