{"id":319818,"date":"2025-11-29T03:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T03:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/319818\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T03:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T03:07:09","slug":"georgia-football-wants-to-play-in-sec-championship-game-not-be-a-very-scared-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/319818\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia football wants to play in SEC championship game, not be \u2018a very scared team\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATHENS \u2014 There is some uncertainty as to when Georgia might next play.<\/p>\n

But Kirby Smart spoke very clearly when asked if Georgia might prefer to rest next week instead of playing in the SEC championship game. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you worry about injury risk, we won\u2019t practice next week,\u201d Smart said on Friday. \u201cSo you live your life scared of injuries, you know what you get? A very scared team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smart did see his team lose its starting center, Drew Bobo, to a lower leg injury during Georgia\u2019s 16-9 win over Georgia Tech. <\/a><\/p>\n

Yet if there is a chance for Georgia to play in the SEC championship game, even without Bobo, Smart wants to be there. <\/p>\n

So to does this Georgia football team, which now sits with an 11-1 record after going 7-1 in SEC play. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s also an opportunity to win an SEC championship,\u201d Smart said. \u201cDoes that matter?\u00a0Does anybody care about that anymore? I mean, I grew up thinking that was the greatest game in the world and just different from everybody else. Yeah, we lost guys today to injury.\u00a0We\u2019re going to lose guys in practice to injury.But that\u2019. next man up.<\/p>\n

Smart didn\u2019t stop there, lamenting the fact that playing in the SEC championship game could be seen as a bad thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, that\u2019s what\u2019s wrong with this whole thing now,\u201d Smart said. \u201cIt\u2019s like, well, what if you get hurt?\u00a0What if you do this?\u00a0What if you do that?\u00a0I mean, it\u2019s football.\u00a0It\u2019s all part of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Georgia knows better than anyone the dangers of playing in the SEC championship game. Last year\u2019s starting quarterback, Carson Beck, suffered a season-ending elbow injury against Texas in the 2024 SEC Championship Game.<\/p>\n

Yet that cleared the way for Gunner Stockton to take over as the starting quarterback. He made his first career start in the College Football Playoff loss to Notre Dame. <\/p>\n

Of this week\u2019s projected College Football Playoff field, Stockton is the only quarterback to have previously started a College Football Playoff game. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe (SEC) championship game, I mean, it\u2019s where you want to be at the end of the day and it was a great atmosphere, and that\u2019s where we want to be at the end of the day,\u201d Stockton said.<\/p>\n

To get there, Georgia will need either Texas to beat Texas A&M or Auburn to beat Alabama. The Aggies and Crimson Tide are both favored to win but must go on the road and beat a rival. <\/p>\n

Georgia did that on Friday, even if the win over Georgia Tech took place in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. <\/p>\n

The Bulldogs move to 11-1 and very certainly clinch a spot in the College Football Playoff field. <\/p>\n

As for what\u2019s next, Georgia doesn\u2019t know. It could play next week in the SEC championship game. It could play next month in the first round of the College Football Playoff, with those games scheduled for Dec. 19 and 20th. <\/p>\n

It could also have to wait till next year to play, in the event it doesn\u2019t play in the SEC championship game yet still finds a way to get a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff as a top four seed. If Georgia, currently ranked No. 4<\/a>, holds its seeding, it may have to wait until Jan. 1 to take the field again. <\/p>\n

Smart knows all the possible options. He\u2019s asked around about rest and what\u2019s the best way to handle the road ahead. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe sweet spot is win,\u201d Smart said. \u201cYou\u2019ll question what the right decision was, right? There is no right decision. I mean, we talked to coaches all over the place last year that dealt with it, and there was the extended long layoff, there was the nonextended long layoff, there was the Ohio State got hot, and they didn\u2019t play in a (conference) championship. I mean, look, at the end of the day, you gotta do what you feel best about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Georgia won on Friday. It will need to keep winning to accomplish its ultimate goal of winning a national championship. <\/p>\n

Whether that takes five, four or three more games is out of Georgia\u2019s hands. <\/p>\n

Smart laid out Georgia\u2019s plan for next week, as best he can to this point. <\/p>\n

The Georgia coach knows that Georgia must keep getting better and above all, keep winning. <\/p>\n

\u201cFirst thing we\u2019ll do is go in, look at our roster, talk to our kids, visit with our kids, get ready for signing day, get recovery, do some lifting,\u201d Smart said. \u201cDo some self-scout, look at some other opponents and see what they\u2019re doing well, how we can maybe grow our encyclopedia of offense and defense, and just continue to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirby Smart doesn\u2019t want Georgia to become \u2018a very scared team\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATHENS \u2014 There is some uncertainty as to when Georgia might next play. But Kirby Smart spoke very…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[40182,163718,399,681,9228,398,396,397,7702,99],"class_list":["post-319818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-acc","tag-atlanta-gridiron-classic","tag-football","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-tech","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sec","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}