Alabama and Ole Miss resoundingly won important Southeastern Conference games this past weekend to stay alive in the race for college football’s inaugural 12-team postseason field.
Now Georgia needs to prevail to avoid likely elimination, though Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart isn’t choosing to view Saturday night’s showdown against visiting Tennessee inside Sanford Stadium as a de facto playoff game.
“I don’t ever take those approaches,” Smart said Monday during his weekly news conference. “I don’t think they’re the right way to go about things. You’re trying to win your conference all the time, and to do that, you’ve got to win your games at home, and you’ve got to play well on the road, which we have and haven’t.
“I like making it about who we play and how we play and less about just outcomes.”
The pairing of the No. 6 Vols (8-1, 5-1 SEC) and the No. 11 Bulldogs (7-2, 5-2) is scheduled to kick off shortly after 7:30 on ABC.
Georgia this past weekend struck quickly for a 7-0 lead at Ole Miss but then fell flat, with the Rebels overwhelming the Bulldogs the rest of the way in a 28-10 runaway. Ole Miss averaged 6.2 yards per play in its thorough domination before a frenzied Vaught-Hemingway Stadium crowd while holding the Bulldogs to a 3.8-yard clip.
“We move on and just get ready for our next game,” Bulldogs junior inside linebacker Jalon Walker said Monday. “We’re very process-oriented, and that’s part of the process — just getting over that hump and moving on to the next week and what’s important at hand.”
The 10 points matched the single-game low for the Bulldogs in Smart’s nearly nine full seasons, with their touchdown drive covering just 21 yards due to an early interception of Jaxson Dart. Georgia rushed 33 times for 59 yards for a 1.8-yard average a year after torching the Rebels for 300 yards on the ground.
Georgia will face the stingy Volunteers with the nation’s No. 50 overall offense, averaging 410.6 yards a game, and the No. 48 scoring offense at 30.6 points per contest. Those averages are well off of last year, when the Bulldogs averaged 496.5 yards and 40.1 points.
“We’ve played really good defenses, but I would be remiss if I said we’re happy with where we are,” Smart said. “The execution would be the biggest thing, but we’ve played some really, really good defenses this year — more than most people in terms of their schedules. When you look at the SEC games, it’s not as glaring of a difference with us and other teams, but we want to be more productive.
“We want to be able to throw the ball vertically down the field. We want to do play-action, which is set up off of your backs and your ability to run the ball. There are games when we’ve run the ball better and some when we’ve thrown it better, but regardless of that, you must be able to protect the ball. We haven’t done that, and that’s the key to the drill.”
Fifth-year senior quarterback Carson Beck has been intercepted 12 times in the past six contests after getting picked off six times in his first 17 games as Georgia’s starter. Beck has three-interception games this season against Alabama, Texas and Florida, and Smart was asked Monday if he’s considered switching quarterbacks during a game, even briefly for a change of pace.
“Absolutely not,” Smart said. “We’ve got the quarterback we’ve got who’s completely confident and capable in understanding our system and gives us the best chance to win.”
Georgia will enter Saturday having defeated the Vols seven consecutive times by double digits. The closest of those encounters was the 27-13 decision two years ago, a game the Bulldogs led 27-6 until Tennessee finally got into the end zone with 4:15 remaining.
The Vols may not get eliminated with a setback inside Sanford Stadium, but they could fall behind Texas, Alabama, Ole Miss and Georgia in the league’s pecking order when it comes to the national rankings. Tennessee will arrive in Athens tied with Texas for the SEC lead.
“As you sit down and watch their games, you start to realize how good this team is and how well they’ve played,” Smart said. “They’ve got a tremendous football team, and we’ve got a tremendous football team. It’s going to be a great opportunity for these two to go play and square off in what’s a pivotal matchup at night and at our place.
“It’s what you come to Georgia to play in, and it seems like we have been in a bunch of these type of games, especially this year.”
‘What an idiot’
Video surfaced Monday of Georgia redshirt sophomore safety Jake Pope joining in the celebration inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
“What an idiot,” Smart said. “I mean — just stupid. I didn’t see it until today, and he’s embarrassed about it and upset about it. That was a childhood friend of his that he grew up and played with at Buford and had not seen him in forever, but that’s just not real smart.
“To be honest with you, I don’t have time to waste energy on that. You know what I’m saying?”
Assessing Greene
Redshirt sophomore left tackle Earnest Greene III struggled throughout Saturday’s loss in Oxford.
“Earnest plays the hardest position in all of football, which is the left tackle position,” Smart said. “We’ve rolled some there, and Monroe (Freeling) spells him sometimes. Earnest has been dealing with a really tough injury to manage in that he’s had some stingers and burners on his shoulder.
“He was limited last week in how many reps he could get in practice, so he’s frustrated, because he’s trying to improve and get better, but sometimes you can’t do that when you don’t practice every single day, and you can’t bang and compete like you want to.”
Payment coming
Ole Miss will be paying Georgia $350,000 after Rebels fans rushed the field Saturday.
The Rebels had to pay LSU $100,000 last year, and $250,000 of their latest fine is for a second violation of the league’s access to competition area policy. The additional $100,000 is the result of storming the field before the game had ended.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.