The excitement from Georgia's first Southeastern Conference championship in a dozen seasons was enhanced Sunday afternoon when the Bulldogs were seeded No. 3 in college football's four-team playoff and received an invitation to the hallowed Rose Bowl to face No. 2 Oklahoma on New Year's Day in the first of two national semifinals.
No. 1 Clemson will face No. 4 Alabama in the second semifinal at the Sugar Bowl.
Georgia's jubilation was also tempered by the arrests of junior inside linebacker Natrez Patrick and junior receiver Jayson Stanley, who both started in Saturday's 28-7 downing of Auburn in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The two were arrested late Saturday night in Barrow County after returning from Atlanta, with Stanley charged with DUI and both players receiving misdemeanor marijuana possession charges.
Patrick already has been suspended twice for marijuana, and this third incident could result in his dismissal.
"With Natrez and Jayson, I'm obviously disappointed in some of the actions," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said Sunday afternoon on a Rose Bowl teleconference, "but we still don't have all the information completely in from that. Their discipline will be handled internally."
Patrick had three tackles and a quarterback hurry Saturday, helping the Bulldogs hold the Tigers to 259 total yards. Auburn had racked up 488 yards during its 40-17 win over Georgia on Nov. 11.
Smart did have a positive update on senior tailback Sony Michel, who did not play in the fourth quarter Saturday due to a left knee injury and was scheduled to undergo an MRI. Michel has "a little bit of soreness," Smart said, and should be fine for the first-ever meeting between the Bulldogs and Sooners.
Oklahoma improved to 12-1 in Lincoln Riley's first season with a 41-17 drubbing of TCU in Saturday's Big 12 title game. Riley had been Oklahoma's offensive coordinator under Bob Stoops, who stunned the college football world this past summer by announcing his resignation after 18 seasons.
"It's been a great season for our team," Riley said. "It's been a great ride that changed for me in June when Coach Stoops stepped down, and I'm just really proud of our team and staff in terms of how they've handled this entire year and the ups and downs that came with it.
"We've kept our heads down and improved, and we ultimately won a Big 12 championship and put ourselves in position to play a great Georgia team in one of the best settings in college football and in sports, period."
Oklahoma won the national championship in 2000, when Stoops was in his second season. The Sooners ended their 2002 season with a 34-14 thrashing of Washington State in the Rose Bowl, which is the lone previous time Oklahoma has played in Pasadena, Calif.
The Bulldogs played in the Rose Bowl after their 1942 season, but Smart coached in the historic facility as Alabama's defensive coordinator in 2009, when the Crimson Tide beat Texas in that season's BCS championship game.
"We get to play in a venue that a lot of these kids in the Southeast don't get the opportunity," Smart said. "I was very fortunate to get to coach in a game out there and thought that it was probably my most memorable game of all the ones I've ever coached in just because of the stadium and all the history that's involved in it.
"Our guys will find out about that, and they'll be excited about it."
Georgia is the first SEC team to play in the Rose Bowl since Auburn, which lost 34-31 to Florida State in the BCS championship game after the 2013 season.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.