ATLANTA — Two teams will take the field as hunters Saturday night in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, only one will exit still alive in the championship race.
“Our kids will come out and play really hard,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said on ESPN College GameDay.
“We didn’t play our best game the last time out defensively, but our offense picked us up.”
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Smart needs his offense to take care of the ball based on recent history.
In each of UGA’s five losses dating back to a 28-21 loss to Texas in the 2019 Sugar Bowl, the Bulldogs have turned the ball over at least twice and been at least minus-two in turnover differential.
The No. 1-ranked Bulldogs look to be running on all cylinders when they face No. 4 Ohio State at 8 p.m. in the CFP Peach Bowl Semifinal.
“You’ve got to eat and when you attack a game, you’ve got to attack it that way,” Smart said. “I’m sure Ohio State feels the same way. There’s only one way to go about playing in a semifinal game.
“That’s if it’s the only game, and it’s the only game you’re guaranteed, you come out aggressive and come out swinging like I know both teams will.”
Smart is 56-1 at Georgia when the Bulldogs score 30 or more points, but only 2-8 when the Bulldogs yield more than 30 points.
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Georgia is coming off a 50-30 win over LSU in the SEC Championship game that Smart said he has used as motivation to keep his team sharp.
“You show them the tape, you show them the things they’ve done wrong,” Smart said, asked how he’s keeping the Bulldogs hungry.
“We didn’t have exactly a perfect SEC Championship Game, so we’ve got a lot of things to work on and we talk all the time about how the might fall and what things bring people down.”
Smart has acknowledged the psychological edge Ohio State has to work with as it searches for vindication after its humbling season-ending defeat to rival Michigan.
Georgia operated with the same sort of motivation after getting dumped 41-24 at the hands of Alabama during its 2021 championship season.
The Bulldogs bounced back off that loss with a dominating 34-11 win over Michigan in the CFP Semifinal Orange Bowl before avenging the loss to the Tide in the CFP title game, 33-18.
The 2022 Bulldogs have the school’s first-ever perfect 13-0 mark and has proven resilient at each turn when tested.
“Our team’s well connected,” Smart said. “We don’t think that you have to have a loss to play your best.
“Sometimes that does help and I think it certainly helped our team last year. For us, it’s about how we play and how we do things. Our guys have practiced really physical the last couple of weeks, and I’m excited to see them all play tonight.”