STARKVILLE, Miss. — Mississippi State’s football team had taken ranked foes Tennessee and Texas to overtime before faling short when the Volunteers and the Longhorns visited Davis Wade Stadium this season, and last weekend’s road win against Arkansas finally ended a 16-game losing streak in Southeastern Conference play for the program.
So when second-year head coach Jeff Lebby’s team put together a 14-play, 75-yard touchdown drive on the first possession of Saturday’s game, eating up 5 minutes and 34 seconds of game clock in the process, it might have seemed like fifth-ranked Georgia’s chances for a long afternoon had just gone up.
And then coach Kirby Smart, who had lamented the lack of dominance by his reigning SEC champions in a series of close calls in conference play this season, got just what he’d been looking for.
Georgia scored 38 straight points after giving up the early touchdown, Gunner Stockton threw for 264 yards and three touchdowns, and the call was anything but close for Smart’s crew in a 41-21 win over Mississippi State. Georgia improved to 8-1 overall and 6-1 in league play while dropping the hosts to 5-5 and 1-5.
“Really proud of our guys. I thought that was a total team effort in a really tough place to play,” Smart said. “I have a lot of respect for Jeff. This team has played great all year. We had good leadership this week, and our conditioning was the difference.”