[ad_1]
ATLANTA — Georgia coach Kirby Sensible stated he hung out over the previous 12 months surveying different coaches about how finest to strategy the 12-team Faculty Soccer Playoff.
A 12 months in the past, Ohio State missed its convention championship sport, however the Buckeyes acquired scorching and received a nationwide title.
In the meantime, the 4 convention champions who all earned first-round byes final season struggled mightily of their first playoff video games, with all 4 high seeds dropping.
However Sensible wasn’t offered on that logic for this 12 months’s playoff after Georgia’s 16-9 win over Georgia Tech on Friday.
“The candy spot is to win,” Sensible stated when requested how he hoped the subsequent few weeks would shake out for the Bulldogs. “There is no such thing as a proper choice. … On the finish of the day, you need to do what you are feeling finest about. You will at all times second-guess it when you lose and you will not when you win.”
Georgia left Mercedes-Benz Stadium Friday figuring out its regular-season loss to Alabama meant it wanted assist to earn an SEC title sport berth. The Bulldogs wanted both an Alabama loss to Auburn on Saturday or a Texas A&M loss to Texas on Friday night time.
The Bulldogs did not have to attend lengthy to get their reply, because the Longhorns upset the Aggies 27-17 later Friday night time.
It means the fourth-ranked Bulldogs will return to Atlanta in eight days to defend their SEC title. Alabama can clinch the opposite spot ought to it win at Auburn whereas a Crimson Tide loss means Ole Miss would face Georgia.
Given Ohio State’s success with out enjoying in final 12 months’s Large Ten title sport, the considered taking subsequent week off might have been a preferential possibility for some coaches, who’d want to see their staff get wholesome and keep away from added damage danger from an additional sport.
Not for Sensible, who has received three SEC titles.
“You reside your life afraid of accidents, you already know what you get? A really scared staff,” Sensible stated after Friday’s sport. “It is also a possibility to win an SEC championship. Does that matter? Does anyone care about that anymore? I grew up considering that was the best sport on the earth. I am simply completely different from everyone else. … That is what’s mistaken with this entire factor now. What when you get damage? It is soccer. It is all a part of it.”
A minimum of a few of Georgia’s offensive struggles Friday have been a results of accidents. Middle Drew Bobo left the sport early, and his absence appeared to restrict the Bulldogs’ passing assault. Sensible did not put the blame on Bobo’s departure, however did notice that QB Gunner Stockton wanted to reply higher.
Stockton completed 11-of-21 passing for simply 70 yards — the bottom passing output for a Georgia staff since 2019. Stockton’s early decide arrange a Georgia Tech subject purpose, and his downfield pictures have been all off the mark.
“It wasn’t nice,” Sensible stated of the passing sport. “There was some drop eight in there, there was some stress he took on, some batted balls. He is acquired to do what he is coached to do. That is the hardest factor. … There have been a pair performs that have been on the market we did not make. He’ll watch the tape and develop from it and get higher, and so will the remainder of the staff.”
Georgia’s gamers weren’t precisely lobbying for something both, and when it got here to risk of enjoying within the SEC title sport, the sensation was a bit extra muted.
The query of whether or not Georgia gamers would favor a while off elicited a pregnant pause from the 4 starters on the dais after Friday’s win earlier than Stockton lastly spoke up.
“We’ll simply be able to play,” he stated, “at any time when we’re (scheduled).”
It seems that will probably be again in Atlanta subsequent Saturday on the SEC title sport.
[ad_2]