The No. 3 Georgia football team takes on the No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels in a College Football Playoff game. Below you can find live updates, highlights, the latest injury news and the score for the game.
Georgia earned a first-round bye, while Ole Miss beat Tulane in the first round of the College Football Playoff. Georgia beat Ole Miss 43-35 when they met earlier in the season.
Georgia football-Ole Miss live updates, score, highlights for College Football game
Ole Miss 3, Georgia 0, 5:47
11 Plays, 60 Yards, 4:27
Ole Miss scores on a 55 yard field goal by Lucas Carneiro.
1st Quarter
UGA has won the toss & elected to defer.
5 p.m.: Georgia’s injury report has been pretty straightforward this week.
The Bulldogs will be without Gabe Harris and Joenel Aguero on the defensive side of the ball. Harris is dealing with a turf toe injury, while Aguero will miss his second-straight game due to a wrist injury.
For Harris, look for Georgia to get a lot more out of Joseph Jonah-Ajonye. The redshirt freshman has been a regular contributor for the Bulldogs, but Georgia will ask much more of him against Ole Miss.
As for Aguero, Rasean Dinkins got the start for Georgia against Alabama and will be expected to do so once again.
On the offensive side of the ball, Georgia will get two playmakers back, with wide receiver Colbie Young and tight end Ethan Barbour both available. Young has not played since Georgia’s first game against Ole Miss, while Barbour has been out since the second game of the season with an ankle injury.
Center Drew Bobo will miss Thursday’s game due to a foot injury. Malachi Toliver is expected to start in his place.
As for Ole Miss, running back Kewan Lacy has been listed as probable all week. Lacy leads the SEC in rushing touchdowns this season and has been a focal point of the Ole Miss offense.
Georgia football injury report
- Gabe Harris — turf toe — out
- Drew Bobo — left foot — out
- DB Kyron Jones — foot — out
- DL Jordan Hall — leg — out
- DB Joenel Aguero wrist — out
Georgia football-Ole Miss: Game time for the College Football Playoff
The Georgia football-Ole Miss game is set for an 8:10 p.m. ET start on Thursday, Jan. 1.
Georgia football-Ole Miss: TV Channel for the College Football Playoff game
The Georgia football-Ole Miss game will be broadcast on ESPN. Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy and Molly McGrath will call the game.
Georgia football-Ole Miss: How to watch online, stream College Football Playoff game
The Georgia football-Ole Miss game will be streamed using the WatchESPN app. Click here to watch the game. You will need a subscription to watch.
Georgia football-Ole Miss: Odds, point spread, over/under for College Football Playoff game
Georgia is a 6-point favorite against Ole Miss. The total for the game is 55.5. Georgia is 6-7 against the spread this season.
What Georgia football coach Kirby Smart said about Ole Miss
On Georgia’s success on fourth down and scoring touchdowns in the red zone...
Kirby Smart: "Well, we work at them. But that doesn’t always have something to do with that. Those stats can be very misleading. Especially the fourth down one, because what fourth downs are you going for? Is it fourth and inches, fourth and one, or you’re behind the game so you’re going for fourth and 8, fourth and 7? Teams that win games usually have a pretty good fourth-down rate. They’re not going for it all the time on fourth. The LSU team in whatever year it was, with Joe Burrow and them, they didn’t have any fourth downs. They didn’t have third downs either. Nobody stopped them before they got to third or fourth. That can be a little misleading.
I think the red zone percentage has a lot to do with being able to run the ball. You run out of field space out there and you have to find creative ways to score in the red zone. Our offense has been efficient in the red zone. We don’t look at it as just field goals. We look at it as opportunities to score touchdowns. But it’s a big part in games. It’s usually a four-point play and we’ve been good at those."
On if having past experince in this game matters...
Kirby Smart: "I think it’s a good topic for you guys to talk about and debate about. But once the players get on the field, all of that goes away. None of that matters. We’ve been in rematches, big games. When you play in the SEC, every week is a big game. When you go on the road in the SEC and play, it’s an environment like no other. It can’t be matched. The gauntlet of what their team has gone through and what our team has gone through, this is another SEC battle. I don’t think personally think you can draw much on -- the experiences you learned from last year are experiences like travel, extra day in the hotel, where you don’t get those in the regular season. But in these kind of matchups, it still boils down to players making plays and coaches putting them in positions to."
On what makes this Georgia team different than his past ones...
Kirby Smart: "They’ve had a great personality. I think I’ve said it over and over, but there were times in the past that we were a little bit older or we had a lot of guys that had been in the program for a fifth or sixth year. It was during the little COVID run there. There were times you felt like they didn’t love the game. They didn’t really want to be out there and practice like you really want. And that hasn’t been the case for this group. They’ve had a lot of energy. We’re a little younger, and they want to be coached. They want to be coached hard. They like practicing hard. They get out there and do exactly what you demand of them each and every day. They’ve seen some of the rewards from that, some of the physical toughness, some of the stop the run, run the ball. I mean, like they see the rewards from it, and they bought into that being an identity. And that’s created a little bit different -- now, I don’t know we’re as talented as some of those other teams, just sheer draft pick, but that’s not always what wins. At the end of the day, it’s the cohesion of a team, a lot of role players that you have that really buy into doing things that helps you win."
