Kirby Smart explains what's next for his Georgia Bulldogs after Ole Miss loss
The Georgia Bulldogs dropped out of the AP Poll Top 25 College Football Rankings following a disappointing 28-10 road loss to Ole Miss on Saturday night. Georgia fell from No. 2 to No. 11 and now they have another tough test in front of them as they get ready to take on No. 6 Tennessee. […]
The Georgia Bulldogs dropped out of the AP Poll Top 25 College Football Rankings following a disappointing 28-10 road loss to Ole Miss on Saturday night.
Georgia fell from No. 2 to No. 11 and now they have another tough test in front of them as they get ready to take on No. 6 Tennessee.
While the loss to Ole Miss definitely made their road to the SEC championship and playoffs a tad bit harder, head coach Kirby Smart isn't too caught up in all of that. He's focused on the next game, and he is very confident that his players are too.
"I think they'll respond like they do everything," Smart said. "They'll come out and compete, practice hard. I think you guys get caught up in all those numbers and records and all that. I don't even care about that. The only thing I'm worried about is how we get better tomorrow. Like, what can we do with our players tomorrow to get better? Our players will be fine. They're not — it's a different world. Like, we're not riding this roller-coaster wave of emotions. We're on a long journey. It's a long journey and you've got play the next play and you've got to play the next game, and that's the goal for this group. That's what I told him in there. I was like, guys, our future's in front of us. We've got to figure out how to get better."
Georgia was the favorite to beat Ole Miss but Smart said he wasn't too surprised how things turned out considering that's a very good football team and anything can happen on any given Saturday in the SEC.
"I mean, welcome to the SEC, baby," Smart said. "I mean, I said when the season started that it was going to be the toughest schedule we've ever had in the SEC with the addition of the Texas game on top of all the others we had to play. It's extremely tough. It's difficult. I mean, the outlook of going to those four road games, the Kentucky, the Texas, the Alabama, and this one, we knew it was going to be really tough. And as you go through the season you get injuries. I mean, they've got injuries too. Everybody's got injuries. It just makes it tough. It's tough, but you know what, our future's in front of us. We've got a big game next week. We've got to go out, and we've got to find a way to execute at a higher level."
The Bulldogs open Week 12 against the Volunteers as 9.5-point favorites. Kickoff is Between the Hedges at 7:30 pm ET on Saturday. Georgia must win if they want to stay locked into the playoffs.
