ATHENS — Lane Kiffin has built a powerful team at Ole Miss, to the extent Georgia is only a 12-point favorite in the teams’ upcoming matchup, the smallest spread of the year for the Bulldogs.

It’s a Georgia team team that will be missing its top offensive playmaker, Brock Bowers (ankle), and could also be without middle linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson, a 2022 All-American and Butkus Award Finalist who fractured his forearm in Saturday’s win over Missouri.

Coach Kirby Smart brings an intense and serious tone to the sideline in Athens, where his program has won back-to-back national titles and opened this season 9-0 overall and 6-0 in the SEC.

“Lot of respect for what Lane’s done and built there,” Smart said after UGA’s 30-21 win over Missouri. “He’s a tremendous offensive mind. He’s gone out and they’re playing good defense now too. It’ll be a hell of a matchup because they’ve got a really good football team.”

Kiffin said after the Rebels’ win earlier in the day he’d forgotten his team was even playing Georgia this week when told Ole Miss’ game in Athens could be the biggest in program history.

The Bulldogs can clinch a third-straight trip to the SEC Championship Game if they can find a way to beat No. 10-ranked Ole Miss (8-1, 5-1) in the 7 p.m. game at Sanford Stadium.

Smart will work to keep his team focused with College GameDay headed to Athens to hype up what figures to me one of the most anticipated contests of the season.

If anyone can provide an off-field distraction to Smart and his players through social media, it’s Kiffin, who is known for his clever humor and barbed digs.

Kiffin has had his fun ribbing Smart over the years, whether that be over the Georgia coach’s questionable diet and exercise regimen, or the success Alabama’s Nick Saban has had over him in head-to-head matchups.

Kiffin and Smart worked together under Saban in Tuscaloosa in 2014 and 2015 before the Georgia coach returned to his alma mater to build a championship program.

Kiffin stuck around one more year at Alabama before returning to the head coaching ranks at Florida Atlantic (2017-19) and now Ole Miss.

Smart has acknowledged a friendship with Kiffin, noting the two are engaged in text threads with one another and other former Saban assistants.

“Well, I’ll give Lane this — he didn’t post that unwarranted,” Smart said during a Marty & McGee SEC Network appearance when speaking of the graphic with him on Saban’s knee. “We have a legendary side thread that goes on between Lane and I, so he sent that on the side thread long before he posted it on Twitter. I know he does it for reaction and for entertainment.

“We spent several years together there at Alabama, and that’s another one of his ways of taking a shot back at me. He used to get whoopings when we were there. I didn’t get the same whippings he got, so he’s trying to get his jabs back.”

It’s likely there will be some attempts from national media to get Smart into some playful engagements with Kiffin this week leading up to the game despite the serious nature of what Georgia football is trying to accomplish.

Kiffin’s popularity is such that ESPN College GameDay did a live cut-in with the Ole Miss coach during its broadcast from Tuscaloosa last Saturday, giving him a chance to promote his program and provide a light-hearted pick for the Alabama-LSU game.

Kiffin’s relationship with former Saban assistant Jimbo Fisher does not seem as warm as with other former Saban assistants.

The Ole Miss head coach grilled the Texas A&M head coach over NIL and recruiting talent over the past couple of years, also winning the past three matchups including last Saturday’s in Oxford, 38-35.

This will be the first head coach meeting between Kiffin and Smart, with Ole Miss representing the one SEC team that Smart has yet to defeat as the Georgia head coach, losing the sole contest in 2016.

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Other SEC game lines:

Alabama -12 at Kentucky

Vanderbilt at South Carolina -13

Tennessee at Missouri -1

Auburn at Arkansas -2

Florida at LSU -12

Mississippi State at Texas A&M -17

West Virginia at Oklahoma -13

Texas -9 at TCU