For the first time all season, Georgia was pushed in a game. It had to play its starters deep into the fourth quarter and make plays to close out the game.
Yet for as uninspiring as the 39-22 win over Kent State was the Bulldogs still held onto the top spot in the Week 5 Coaches Poll Top 25.
The Bulldogs were followed by Alabama at No. 2, Ohio State at No. 3, Michigan at No. 4 and Clemson at No. 5. Oklahoma dropped to No. 16 after its loss to Kansas State at home, while Tennessee now moves into No. 9 following its win over Florida.
The Bulldogs did lose six first-place votes, dropping from 40 to 34 in that category.
Georgia now has two future top-10 foes on its schedule, as Kentucky is at No. 8 in the Coaches poll. Georgia plays Tennessee at home on Nov. 5 and then visits Kentucky on Nov. 19.
The Bulldogs have plenty of time to make improvements between now and then, as the effort displayed on Saturday likely won’t be good enough to beat those two teams.
Georgia did not punt in the win against Kent State and it was largely without star defensive tackle Jalen Carter. After the game though, Kirby Smart and Georgia players were in no mood to make excuses.
“I’m glad we had some adversity. You can probably argue it wasn’t enough,” Smart said. “We still had a 10-point lead there. Adversity to me is overcoming those turnovers and going out and making stops, sudden change and making stops. The red area stop was really big for the defense. think you gain confidence with the way you play in games like that.”
The Bulldogs will go on the road this week to take on a Missouri team that is coming off a 17-14 loss to Auburn. The game is set for a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff in Columbia, Mo., with the SEC Network broadcasting the game.
You can see the full Week 5 Coaches Poll Top 25 rankings below.
Coaches Poll Top 25 rankings Week 5
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Ohio State
- Michigan
- Clemson
- USC
- Oklahoma State
- Kentucky
- Tennessee
- NC State
- Ole Miss
- Penn State
- Utah
- Baylor
- Oregon
- Oklahoma
- Washington
- Washington
- Arkansas
- BYU
- Wake Forest
- Florida State
- Minnesota
- Pitt
- Syracuse
More Georgia football stories from around DawgNation
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- Georgia football defensive back Javon Bullard arrested on 7 misdemeanor charges
- 3 takeaways from Kirby Smart: Underutilized Brock Bowers flashes Heisman-worthy talents
- Jamon Dumas-Johnson’s post-game comments show why Georgia football defense is in good hands
- Ladd McConkey struggles, second-half bounce back sums up ‘ugly’ win for Georgia football
- Georgia football-Kent State instant observations as Bulldogs play with their food in sloppy effort
- Kirby Smart updates status of Kenny McIntosh, praises running back Daijun Edwards for Kent State play
- ‘That kid is a freak’: Brock Bowers continues to prove he can do it all and then some for Georgia football
