Searching for a fifth straight victory, No. 5 Georgia travels to Starkville, Miss., on Saturday to face a Mississippi State team coming off a rare Southeastern Conference win.
Georgia (7-1, 5-1 SEC), which rallied to stay in the conference title race last week with a 24-20 win over Florida, is still looking for a complete performance in the eyes of head coach Kirby Smart.
Although the Bulldogs keep winning, Smart wants to see a dominant effort Saturday.
“It’s not about the score because we really don’t make it about that,” Smart said of his team playing close games. “When you want to dominate someone, you don’t check the score halfway through. There’s no scoreboard when you’re talking about dominating somebody. You look at it at the end of the day and see if you did. We haven’t done that very often in terms of dominating the way we want to, but we’ll continue to try to.”
Georgia’s initial College Football Playoff ranking saw it land at the five-spot, but Smart knows that will take a massive hit if the Bulldogs overlook Mississippi State.
“The energy, enthusiasm coming out of (Mississippi State), you can see it in the way their kids play. They’ve got no quit in them,” Smart said. “They’ve been in every game they’ve played. They have a great fan base, and (head coach) Jeff (Lebby) and his staff have done an incredible job. Our guys are going to be up for a great challenge this week.”
Georgia has won 21 of 27 games in the series, last losing in 2010 in Starkville. With an 11 a.m. local start, combined with the famed Davis Wade Stadium cowbells, the visitors will look to avoid a slow start.
“They’ve got a really vertical stadium,” Smart said. “I think the noise gets trapped in their stadium. It’s one of the loudest places I’ve coached, and I’ve coached there a lot. As far as the early kickoff, that’s more unique to me than the stadium, but sometimes you make a bigger deal out of it than it is. You’ve just gotta go play.”
Gunner Stockton has thrown for 1,776 yards, 12 touchdowns and two interceptions, while leading SEC quarterbacks with seven rushing scores in his first full year as the Georgia starter.
Mississippi State (5-4, 1-4) snapped a 16-game conference losing streak last time out, rallying from a 14-point fourth quarter deficit to pull out a 38-35 victory at Arkansas. Lebby’s team had dropped three of four games by seven points or fewer, but with the second-year coach’s first SEC win under his belt, the challenge is now replicating the success.
“It’s going to be about having balance,” Lebby said of what it would take for an upset Saturday. “(Georgia) has been great against the run. We can’t be one dimensional or it’s going to be really, really hard for us up front.”
Led by quarterback Blake Shapen’s 2,146 passing yards and 16 total touchdowns, Mississippi State’s 33.2 points per game are the program’s most since 2015 (34.4) and the team is a win away from bowl eligibility following consecutive losing campaigns.
“We’ve talked about it a ton, being postseason eligible as soon as possible,” Lebby said. “Now it takes one more and our guys understand that. It’s right out there in front of us on Saturday.”
