Georgia is saying all the right things when it comes to playing Mississippi State this week. The Georgia Bulldogs know that anything can happen on a college football Saturday, even when a top 5 team in the country is playing one that got smoked at home by Toledo.
“You know, you never want to underestimate anybody, you know,” safety Malaki Starks said. “I think if you come out with the right mindset and attack it with the same mindset as you do every week, I think the rest will take care of itself.”
Of course, it helps when not even a week ago, Tennessee lost as nearly a two-touchdown favorite to an unranked Arkansas and Alabama, despite being a 24-point favorite, lost to Vanderbilt.
Georgia is an even bigger favorite this weekend, with some sports books listing Georgia as a 34.5-point favorite.
Kirby Smart understands why teams like Alabama and Tennessee fell last week. It wasn’t so much anything specific to either of those teams either, which means something similar could happen to Georgia at some point.
“The margins are tighter,” Smart said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the road at all. It’s just the margins are tighter. Everybody’s got the ability to go get people’s backups, and just look at the scores in the league. It’s tighter than it’s ever been.”
Smart can specifically point to Georgia’s game against Kentucky, where the Wildcats literally were starting GEorgia’s former backup quarterback in Brock Vandagriff.
With players understandably wanting a chance to play, that’s going to have a negative impact on programs like Georgia that recruit at an elite level. For as much as Georgia loved Vandagriff and what he brought to the team, he wasn’t a better player than Carson Beck.
You won’t find anyone crying over Georgia’s predicament at the moment. Even after a loss to Alabama, Georgia still has a great opportunity to make the College Football Playoff this season.
But it knows that every week it is going to face a challenge. Even this week against what would seem like an overmatched Mississippi State team.
“It’s a really competitive league,” Smart said. “We made it better by bringing more people in, and it really boils down to who can play the long game. It’s not about, it is hard to play on the road, yes. But it’s not about that as much as it is these teams are closer than most people realize.”
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