ATHENS — Georgia football coach Kirby Smart believes his teams have the edge regarding mental toughness, and cold temperatures in Starkville figure to put that to the test.
Weather figures to be part of the story when the No. 1-ranked Bulldogs play Mississippi State at Davis Wade Stadium at 7 p.m. on Saturday night.
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Smart said on his weekly coaches’ show that his team prepares for challenges like this one, and the temperature was turned down as low as it could go in the UGA indoor facility during practice this week.
“It will be nice and cool, sounds like, low 40s, high 30s, the first time we’ve had some cool air this season,” Smart said. “I tried to crank the indoor down to 35, but I couldn’t get it that low, so I got it as cold as it could get.
“We talk about DNA travels, we talked about all of the things and exercises we do to prepare to go into an environment like this.”
The last time Georgia faced a cold-weather team like this Smart reflected that, “I always say it’s only a big deal if you make it a big deal.”
That group of Bulldogs proved their head coach correct, pounding a No. 25-ranked Missouri by a 49-14 count in Columbia on a day the wind chill made it feel like 30 degrees back in November of 2020.
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Georgia rolled up 615 yards of total offense with former QB JT Daniels throwing for 299 and 3 TDs as Todd Monken’s offense didn’t appear to be affected.
Now, it’s Stetson Bennett’s turn to lead the team into a cold-weather game that also figures to have some wind.
“If you are headed to Starkville, by the time you’re headed to the tailgate the rain will be out, but it will be very cold and it will be super breezy,” Ella Dorsey, meteorologist for WANF-CBS told Brandon Adams on DawgNation Daily.
“At kickoff, it will 41 be degrees, but at the end of the game it will be 35,” she said. “Wind chills through the entire day will be in the 30s.”
The game features the SEC’s two leading passers, as Will Rogers has thrown for 2,912 yards while Bennett is second in the league with 2,606 yards.
Both Mississippi State and Georgia rely more on shorter high-efficiency pass games and figure to be measured when they choose to take deep shots if the wind is blowing at more than 10 mph.
Davis Wade Stadium is not entirely enclosed, but the good news for the quarterbacks is that the north side is, and that’s the direction the wind is expected to be coming from.
“It qualifies as cold to me when you can see your breath,” Smart has said, once recalling a 1997 game at Sanford Stadium against Auburn where the wind chill made the temperature drop to freezing.
Georgia ranks 30th in the nation in rushing with 194 yards per game, while Mississippi State averages just 80.7 yards rushing, 129th out of 131 teams.
