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.”