NASHVILLE — Georgia football coach Kirby Smart respects Vanderbilt counterpart Clark Lea and the work he is putting into his alma mater at the Southeastern Conference’s smallest university, which is also the only private institution in the 14-school conference.
“I think he has the right approach,” Smart said of the former Commodores fullback, who is now in his third season back in Nashville. “He knows the area. He knows that state. He knows the institution, which, institutional knowledge is powerful information.”
That doesn’t mean Smart, coach of his own alma mater since the 2016 season, plans on taking it easy on Vanderbilt when his top-ranked Bulldogs (6-0, 3-0 SEC) kick off against the host Commodores (2-5, 0-3) on Saturday morning. They’ve won by a combined 117-0 score in the past two series meetings.
Now the two-time reigning national champions go from playing between the hedges of their own Sanford Stadium to between the construction cranes in Nashville. The Commodores are playing through Vanderbilt’s first major renovation of its football stadium since 1981.
Georgia’s pregame plan included an early wakeup call Friday, with steak and eggs for breakfast Saturday before going to play.
“We’ve done it before, and we’ve got do it again,” Smart said. “We’ll do some biorhythm prep the day before and try to get them up early on consecutive days and get them used to it. They’re young, and they can handle it.”
The Bulldogs will follow this road trip with an open date next week before the annual rivalry game against Florida in Jacksonville.
This will be the 10th time Vanderbilt has played the No. 1 team in the country. The Commodores were shut out the last time they had a top-ranked test, losing 59-0 to Alabama on Sept. 23, 2017.
Vanderbilt has lost five straight games since its 2-0 start this season and is back home after a 38-14 loss at Florida last week.
“There is frustration based off what our expectations were, and so right now we’re just shifting focus back to improving our team and identifying the areas where we can push forward and and play, build to a better performance on Saturday,” Lea said.
Ken Seals appears set for his third straight start at quarterback for Vanderbilt with AJ Swann day to day recovering from a bruised elbow on his throwing arm. Seals, who didn’t play last season, threw for 276 yards against Florida with two touchdowns, including an 85-yarder to receiver Will Sheppard.
Meanwhile, Georgia first-year starter Carson Beck has completed 73.47% of his throws, putting him on pace to top Stetson Bennett IV’s school record of 68.28% set last season. Beck ranks sixth nationally after completing 28 of 35 passes for a career-high 389 yards and four touchdowns in last week’s runaway win over Kentucky, which was ranked 20th at the time.
Smart said Beck is making good decisions.
“Great mental processing,” Smart said. “He’s a great processor. I mean, Carson is very intelligent, guys.”
The junior said his confidence has grown from his chances to start each week instead of looking for opportunities behind Bennett.
“As far as accuracy goes, I think that’s just a chemistry thing,” Beck said. “As we continue to play and I continue to understand certain guys and the way they run certain routes, I think that goes towards the whole accuracy thing.”
It also doesn’t hurt to have Brock Bowers among his targets.
The Georgia junior is making a strong case for a second straight Mackey Award as the nation’s top tight end. Bowers had seven catches for 132 yards and a touchdown against Kentucky, and he is the first Georgia player to post three straight games with at least 100 receiving yards since wide receiver Terrence Edwards in 2002.
The offense took a big step forward in the 51-13 win against Kentucky, and the defense has been getting the job done as usual.
Georgia has had 19 NFL draft picks on defense in the past three seasons, including eight in the first round. The Bulldogs rank 10th in the nation with their average of 13 points allowed this season; they finished 2022 ranked fifth with 14.3 points allowed per game.