GEORGIA BULLDOGS
The No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs have taken the last three weeks to prepare for the No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes for their matchup on New Year’s Eve.
The two elite teams will meet in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for the College Football Playoff semifinal Peach Bowl game.
After Georgia beat LSU 50-30 in the SEC Championship game, Smart hopped on a virtual call with Ohio State head coach Ryan Day to talk about the upcoming matchup between the two teams.
“We’ve got a lot of respect for Ryan [Day] and Ohio State. What a tremendous job he has consistently done, year in and year out, with that program,” Smart said. “It should be an electric matchup with an electric atmosphere. It’s really what college football is all about – these kids having an opportunity to play in a game like this.”
The Bulldogs know a thing or two about the electric atmosphere they’ll be playing in come game day.
Georgia has already played in Mercedes-Benz Stadium twice this year and nine times since 2017. In those two games this year, the Bulldogs’ offense is averaging 49.5 points per game after beating the Oregon Ducks 49-3 in Week 1 and the LSU Tigers by 20 last Saturday.
Day acknowledged that Georgia’s offense will be difficult to scheme for.
“Stetson Bennett does a great job in all areas. I’ve got a lot of respect for the way he plays,” Day said. “They certainly put a lot of stress on you with multiple tight ends, a really good offensive line and skill players on the outside.
The focus over the next couple weeks has got to be working on fundamentals and getting guys healthy.”
From Smart’s perspective, Georgia’s offense will have a lot to prepare for ahead of facing the Ohio State defense.
Earlier this week in the media days leading up to this Saturday, Smart told the media that he expects a wide variety of defensive looks from the Buckeyes.
“I expect to get a little bit of all of them, and it will determine what personnel we put in and how we use our guys. We’ve got three, four really good tight ends, and we hope to be able to use those guys in this game,” Smart said. “They’ve got a really good defensive football team. They’re very physical. They’ve done a great job dating back to the Oklahoma State days. Very good, aggressive, multiple packages on defense, where they give you multiple looks and things."
On the flip side, Ohio State’s offense is one of the best in the country, and Georgia’s defense will have its hands full.
The Buckeyes tout Heisman hopeful CJ Stroud as the team’s quarterback and field general. The junior has thrown for 3,340 yards through 12 games and has added an additional 37 touchdowns to only six interceptions on the year.
Back when he was a five-star player coming out of high school, Smart recruited Stroud and acknowledged how poised of a leader he is.
“He has a really good disposition about him. He’s not real high, not real low, not real emotional. He keeps a really level head, which to me at quarterback is one of the number one qualities you can find,” Smart said. “To see him grow, he’s always had tremendous arm strength and touch and velocity on throws, but he’s become a complete quarterback there in their system.”
With some of Georgia’s secondary getting exposed in the second half against the Tigers last weekend, the Buckeyes' top-15 passing attack may cause issues for Smart and the defensive staff.
Regardless, the Bulldogs’ defense has been one of the best in college football this season, even after losing its defensive coordinator, Dan Lanning, to Oregon over the offseason.
Smart is confident in the staff he has in place, and the players they are putting on the field.
“It’s just culture. That’s not going to change. What we do is not going to change. It doesn’t matter if one coach leaves or another coach leaves. That doesn’t impact our defense,” Smart said. “We rep a lot of players at practice. We have a system set up to get our twos and threes ready, so the next cast of defensive players is getting ready right now just like they were last year.”
Ultimately, the Bulldogs come into the playoffs with more momentum than the Buckeyes. Georgia just won an SEC Championship on its last outing while Ohio State lost by 22 at home to the No. 2 Wolverines.
The two programs haven’t played in almost 30 years, and with how wild some of these college football finishes have been recently, expect a hard-fought match between both teams.