Morning, y’all!
Today, let’s start out with what Georgia coach Kirby Smart wants to see from his team during this bye week.
There’s not one simple answer, as Smart shared with media Tuesday:
“Recovery and conditioning level and getting healthy would be one answer, but getting better would be another answer,” Smart said. “But those two don’t necessarily co-exist well, so you have to be careful about who you’re talking about. Is it a fourth-year player?
“Is it a fifth-year player? Is it a guy that has played a bunch, and he’s beat up because he’s played a bunch of snaps versus a guy that hasn’t, and you’re trying to gain those inches that we just talked about in those margins.”
Let’s get into a few more of Smart’s quotes from Tuesday:
Here was Smart’s opening statement...
“We started getting ourselves better, doing a lot of looking within, self-scout. They got a lot of goals for this week. We got the players in (Monday), got some good rehab in, got some walkthrough in. Then we’ll practice today, light tomorrow, and then practice again Thursday before we give them a break, much-needed break, and then get ready to come back and start up on Florida next week.”
On the trend of so many Top 7 teams losing in one weekend...
“I don’t know. I’d say it’s a new day and age. It’s easy to say the word parity. I think everybody’s used that. Anybody can beat anybody on a given Saturday. The world we live in now, everybody’s got good players. Everybody’s diversifying in terms of the amount of talent that spreads itself out because kids want to play, and kids want to get paid, and starters get paid, so more players go to more places, and there’s just more parity.
“I think you’re going to see more of that. It’s actually going to be, who deals with it best? Who can manage it and deal with this best? You could say a team that’s used to having three, four, five losses, they deal with it better than a team that’s used to one, two, three losses. We gotta do a good job of managing that and dealing with it because the margins are just tighter.”
On Bo Walker’s reduced role in Auburn game...
“Bo’s doing a great job. Bo works his tail off, had a good week of practice, worked really hard and took advantage of some good opportunities against Alabama. This game, Nate was back healthy, playing. It didn’t help any that we fell behind at some point and got behind trying to play catch up some. Both Nate and Dwight (Phillips Jr.) are really good in the pass game and do a good job. Those are the guys we were going with, and it’s nothing that Bo did wrong or right or indifferent. It was opportunity for Nate to come back.”
Read Connor Riley’s full story here.
Georgia atop SEC title odds, but Smart cites ‘brutal gauntlet’ ahead
Smart knows the road to the SEC championship game and College Football Playoff field better than anyone, but the next step is in his clubhouse.
“We’ve started getting ourselves better looking within,” Smart said on Tuesday as No. 5-ranked Georgia turns the page on a 27-24 loss to Auburn on Saturday and looks forward to an Oct. 31 showdown with Florida in Atlanta.
The Bulldogs remain the favorite, per the Fan Duel Sportsbook, to win what figures to be the last SEC championship game in history (provided the 24-team playoff model is approved, as expected), with UGA sitting at +135 odds.
But the same oddsmakers installed Georgia as a 20.5-point favorite over Auburn, and the SEC standings are jumbled enough that at least 12 of the 16 teams remain in contention for the league title game and the 12-team CFP field.
Odds to win SEC Championship Game:
• Georgia +135
• Ole Miss +400
• Alabama +850
• Tennessee +900
• LSU +1100
• Texas +1400
• Kentucky +1600
• Florida +1900
• Oklahoma +3500
• Missouri +4000
Read Mike Griffith’s full story here.
Trivia time
In Tuesday’s newsletter, we talked about Georgia’s running back room.
Who leads the Bulldogs in rushing so far this season (BONUS: How many yards has he rushed for?)
Smart pushes back against the idea Stockton was concussed
After Saturday’s loss to Auburn, Smart was asked if quarterback Gunner Stockton had been dealing with a concussion after sustaining a hit in the first quarter of a 27-24 loss.
Stockton would miss three plays as he was checked out on the sideline. He was cleared to return, but turned the ball over three times in the loss. It was the first multi-interception game of his career.
Smart was asked again on Tuesday if his starting quarterback had displayed any concussion symptoms since the end of the game.
His answer was just as forceful and emphatic as it was on Saturday.
“He has not had any concussion symptoms, so I can only go off what medical people tell me,” Smart said on Tuesday. “I look at him in the eye and talking to him, there was no issue with any of that. Now, he did have a stinger in his shoulder. That can affect you. That’s hard.”
Stockton finished the game with 272 passing yards on 34 attempts. He also ran the ball a season-high nine times, totaling 26 yards on those carries.
The Georgia quarterback had been intercepted just twice all season prior to Saturday’s game. Interceptions in the second and third quarter doubled his total and left the Bulldogs trailing 24-14 at the start of the fourth quarter.
But Stockton led Georgia back, including tying the game on a 94-yard touchdown drive where he accounted for all 94 of Georgia’s yards.
“Everybody’s making speculation and things, but the guy played really good against Alabama, and he could’ve really easily had two interceptions right? I mean, he had one, and the other was debatable right,” Smart said. “So he played pretty good and had two interceptions. He still did some really good things in the game. I don’t think making it about a head injury when there’s no symptoms of that are realistic.”
Stockton had a chance to win the game for Georgia late, but he fumbled the ball after running into center Drew Bobo with just under a minute to go in the game.
Auburn scooped up the fumble and drove the short field to kick a 33-yard field goal as time expired.
Stockton missed three plays during the game, with Ryan Puglisi stepping in as his replacement.
All three plays Puglisi was on the field resulted in completions, including a 41-yard pass to Craig Dandridge.
“He goes out there every day and takes his reps. He takes much less than Gunner, but he was a part of the plan on all those plays,” Smart said. “He sat in the meeting on all of those plays. I don’t think when that happens you can just shut down and say, OK, I’ve gotta change the plan. That was the plan in those situations.”
Stockton and the Bulldogs have this weekend off to recover from last Saturday’s loss. Georgia next takes the field against Florida on Oct. 31.
Georgia is a banged-up football team, as Smart noted on Tuesday. Stockton is no exception.
But he’s still the quarterback Georgia wants to lead them in high-leverage situations.
“He gave us a shot to come back in a game like that,” wide receiver London Humphreys said. “We put together good drives as an offense. Everyone had trust in the whole offense, as a whole, that we still were in the game, so we never wavered during them.”
Read Connor’s full story here.
Trivia answer
Dwight Phillips Jr. with 348 rushing yards
