ATHENS — Kirby Smart stood before the Georgia football world on Monday with the poise and assuredness of a pilot who has landed many planes in many storms.
The No. 2-ranked Bulldogs have weathered turbulent moments to remain on course for what would be a fourth-consecutive SEC Championship Game appearance.
Georgia will play at No. 16 Ole Miss at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday in a game featuring SEC Championship Game and CFP 12-team playoff field implications — for both teams — with a national ABC television audience looking on.
“Every week is a season, so we’re on a new season this week,” Smart said, summing up the Bulldogs approach to facing Coach Lane Kiffin’s Rebels.
Smart, surely like the oddsmakers in Las Vegas that installed his team as a field goal favorite at the start of the week, is counting on Georgia’s resiliency and championship culture to pull the team through.
Skies to the West, more specifically over Oxford, Miss., have an ominous look to them, both literally and figuratively, the current forecast calling for a 70-percent chance of rain.
Some 2 1/2 weeks ago clear skies worked out just fine for Georgia when it traveled to then-No. 1 and unbeaten Texas, backs to the wall with few believers heading into what evolved into a 30-15 Bulldogs’ victory.
Rain, in this case, might actually prove to UGA’s advantage considering how precipitation might put a damper on Ole Miss’ sellout crowd and Jaxson Dart’s Power 4 conference-leading 356.67 yards passing per game.
Smart, confident in a system that has led to the nation’s only back-to-back national championships since the start of the CFP era (2014), doesn’t appeared too concerned, either way.
“I honestly think you prepare for things like this in the offseason with the mental fortitude of your team, the conditioning that your strength staff does, the adversity that you put in front of them,” Smart said. “There’s nothing that can simulate the schedule that we have. I can’t go in the offseason and simulate the schedule.”
Indeed, the Bulldogs’ schedule currently ranks No. 5 in the nation, per the Sagarin Ratings, and that’s with Ole Miss, Tennessee, UMass and Georgia Tech still ahead.
The Florida game might have featured a bit more flavor as an annual rivalry game, while Ole Miss has the feel of some heavy lifting, and blue-collar, hard-hat work ahead.
That would typify business as usual on the road in the SEC, where programs like Vanderbilt and South Carolina brought previously unbeaten league-leaders Alabama and Texas A&M to their knees with upset victories.
It’s why Smart has said repeatedly this season that, “humility is one week away” in the SEC, and he strives to keep his program ascending, but also, level-headed.
“We try to be business-like and intense throughout the season and not treat one game bigger than the other because when you do that the kids read into it,” Smart said. “So, for us, it’s a lot of big games.”
The Georgia players, focused as ever, are aware of the SEC standings and the implications.
Games like this, on the big stage, are what attract the 5-stars that dot Georgia’s roster and fuel the walk-ons and 3-stars that take on the challenge of working to become a working part in Smart’s football machine.
Here are 3 key takeaways from Smart’s Monday press conference:
Test of Time
Georgia has played a brutal schedule from the opening kick against ACC championship game contender.
The first SEC road trip featured a trip into the Bluegrass State against extra-motivated former Dawgs Brock Vandagriff and defensive captain Jamon Dumas-Johnson, and then it was on to Alabama where new coach Kalen DeBoer had more than 100,000 fans revved up and quarterback Jalen Milroe ready to play the best game of his collegiate career.
Georgia turned back rival Auburn and determined Mississippi State at home before traveling to play a confident, stacked Texas team under the lights in what locals suggest might be the biggest regular-season game in the program’s history.
A bye week led into a Cocktail Party to remember, the Bulldogs’ staggered at times by a Florida team playing its best football of the season, before finally emerging with the win.
Smart knows better than anyone what his team has been through, and the significant ask of playing yet another fired-up, ranked SEC opponent on the road.
“I think the elasticity of someone’s ability to focus can be stretched,” Smart said, “and we’re trying to stretch that mental preparation so that they can do it over and over again throughout the season, however many games it takes.”
Throwing Darts
Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart has shot up in the Heisman Trophy odds, from the 75 to 1 to 16 to 1, per BetOnline.ag, just as Carson Beck’s second consecutive three-interception game has, for the moment at least, taken him off the board per the website.
Dart leads the nation in passing efficiency, completing 71.7 percent of his passes with 21 touchdowns and 3 interception, adding a dual-threat with 254 net yards on his 77 carries and another 3 touchdowns via the run.
“I think Jaxson Dart’s playing as probably one of the best quarterbacks playing in the country in terms of explosive plays,” Smart said. “A lot of respect for how he competes. The guy runs extremely physical, like an SEC running back. He doesn’t try to avoid contact; he actually seeks it.
“You can tell he’s got a fiery, competitive attitude, just like his coach does - just like Lane does.”
Sack attack
The Rebels are tops among the Power 4 teams — and second overall — with 4.56 sacks per game — and they are No. 2 in the nation in run defense (82.2).
Ole Miss has generated 17 sacks in the past two games, both against SEC teams, and are loaded with NFL prospects on defense it has acquired through free agency (NIL transfer).
“They’re big, they’re physical — the only remedy for stopping the run is have big people that are hard to move,” Smart said. “In our history here at Georgia, we’ve traditionally been pretty good at stopping the run. You go back to the Jordan Davis days, which were probably the best we had. It’s a strong, physical defensive line, and they have it now.
“They’re physical at the point of attack, and they’re good at attacking and stopping the run.”
• Texas A&M transfer Walter Nolan (6-3, 305), the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2022 class, the No. 3-ranked defensive tackle in the upcoming NFL draft class (ESPN).
• Florida transfer Princely Umanmielen (6-4, 255), the No. 12 portal acquisition (On3), the No. 9 outside ‘backer in upcoming NFL draft class.
• Third-year Georgia Tech transfer Jared Ivey (6-6, 285), No. 7 end upcoming NFL draft class
• Third-year Auburn transfer JJ Pegues (6-2, 325), 10.5 TFLs, 2.5 sacks
• Sophomore linebacker Suntarine Perkiins, team-leading 9 sacks, 2023 Freshman All-American
• Alabama transfer Tre Amos, No. 4 corner in upcoming NFL draft class.