Top-ranked Georgia checked off another box Saturday on its list of goals this season: clinch the SEC East. The Bulldogs traveled to Starkville to take on Mississippi State and came away with a 45-19 win.
It marked the fifth time in six seasons under head coach Kirby Smart for Georgia to secure the SEC East title, but he played down what the Bulldogs accomplished Saturday night.
“We didn’t talk about it in the locker room. That wasn’t our goal, our intention in coming over here,” Smart said. “We came over here to beat Mississippi State, and we’re going to go and try and beat Kentucky next week. Those are things that come from it and we acknowledge that it’s one step at a time. You can’t get ahead of yourself in this league.”
Georgia will face LSU on Dec. 3, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The Tigers clinched the SEC West with Saturday’s 13-10 road victory over Arkansas. However, the Bulldogs and LSU each have two more games scheduled before squaring off against one another.
Per Smart, he and his players focus only on the task at hand, and he was proud of the way they finished a night game on the road in the SEC against Mississippi State.
“This is a tough place to play. It’s a tough offense to play,” Smart said. “For the third week, we’ve had no overlap in our calls. We’ve had Florida, Tennessee and Mississippi State. I don’t want to minimize what our team is doing right now in terms of commitment to practice, toughness and doing things the right way. I’m proud of them. I think people take it for granted sometimes. It’s hard to do what they’ve been doing.”
Georgia’s been dominant lately, defeating its latest trio of opponents by an average margin of 20.6 points per game. The Bulldogs showed again on Saturday why they are at No. 1 overall in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.
Smart’s squad was balanced against the home Bulldogs. Georgia led Mississippi State 17-12 at the half, despite a late second-quarter special teams mishap. UGA had a bust during a punt and Miss State freshman Zavion Thomas returned it 78 yards for a TD.
But UGA kicked it into high gear in the second half, outscoring its opponent, 28-7. Bulldogs’ wide receiver Ladd McConkey enjoyed a particularly impactful third quarter.
The redshirt sophomore rushed for a 70-yard TD and caught a 19-yard score from quarterback Stetson Bennett. Georgia led Mississippi State 31-19 heading into the fourth quarter.
Smart said he was disappointed by the special teams’ error at the end of the second quarter, but added McConkey’s first TD was exactly what his team needed to move forward.
“We had really played well defensively and to give up one play, we needed a spark,” Smart said. “You know, it was the first time we were going to have the ball starting out the second half; it seemed like forever, and we needed to go out and make a statement. The first run went four to five yards. I thought we mashed them. And then the next play we hit the big one, and that kind of got our energy back where it needed to go.”
Mississippi State’s only points of the second half came on a short field following Bennett’s second INT. The Miss State Bulldogs scored in two plays as quarterback Will Rogers connected with Rufus Harvey for a 6-yard score. Regardless, Georgia’s defense gave a stingy performance, limiting MSU to just 169 total yards in the second half.
Meanwhile, Bennett tossed his final TD of the day at the start of the fourth period with a 2-yard score to tight end Darnell Washington.
Finally, the Bulldogs capped off the day scoring-wise as redshirt sophomore running back Kendall Milton had a 34-yard rushing score.
Bennett finished the game completing 25-of-37 passes for 289 yards, three TDs and two INTs. The super senior signal-caller also rushed for 14 yards on six attempts with a score.
Meanwhile, McConkey led the Bulldogs in both rushing and receiving. He totaled 70 yards on one rush with a TD via the ground, but also hauled in five passes for 71 yards and a TD.
Smart said Georgia’s goal from the beginning was not to focus on the result, but rather on Mississippi State as a team.
“This is a really good defense, guys, but we kept responding, we kept competing, and made some big stops on defense. I thought fans, our crowd and our fan base came out and I’m really proud to see that many folks there,” Smart said. “Our team keeps getting better, I think we’re ascending at this time and I was proud of the way they competed.”