Kirby Smart didn’t spend much time admiring Georgia’s 20-17 win over Alabama. He had bigger concerns, and they came straight from the league the Bulldogs live in every week.
Georgia improved to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in SEC play with the victory, and after Texas also fell to Oklahoma, the Bulldogs are the last unbeaten team left in the conference. That kind of standing can tempt a team to breathe a little easier. Smart wasn’t interested in that.
In his postgame press conference, the Georgia coach leaned into the weekly pressure cooker that comes with SEC football and made his point plainly.
“Another week in the SEC,” Smart said. “Humility is a week away, as you saw today.
[Next week] is gonna be physical. It’s gonna be tough.”
That message landed in the middle of a day that reminded several ranked teams how quickly things can turn. Texas, which was a sizable favorite against Oklahoma, ended up on the wrong side of the result in Dallas.
Colin Simmons said the Longhorns gave away the game to the Sooners. Florida, meanwhile, entered its game against South Carolina as a double-digit favorite and got rolled 38-19 by the Gamecocks.
Georgia’s own path to Saturday’s win didn’t come with the comfort of being the expected side, either. The Bulldogs opened as favorites over Alabama but went into kickoff as betting underdogs. Still, they came out with a win that kept them perfect.
Now the attention shifts to Auburn, and Georgia won’t be carrying an underdog label into that one. The Bulldogs are three-possession favorites in most betting markets ahead of a Week 7 bye, but Smart is already pushing the focus back to discipline and perspective after the Week 6 win.
Georgia and Auburn are set to kick off at 3:30 p.m. E.T. on Saturday, Oct. 17 on ESPN.
In Other News...
Auburn's Offensive Line Fix Hinges On A Reality Fans Hate
Auburns offensive line has been one of those problems that has lingered through multiple coaching staffs, and it is still shaping the conversation around Alex Goleshs first steps with the program. His plan leans heavily on a reality fans often dislike hearing: the quickest fix is not always the best one. Instead of trying to patch the unit together year by year, Golesh is focusing on developing young linemen already in the building, including Kenneth McManus and Wilson Zierer, while also making high school recruiting the backbone of the rebuild.
That approach stands in contrast to the more transfer-heavy stopgap methods Auburn has leaned on before, and it asks for patience at a position group where patience is usually in short supply. The upside is obvious if the development takes hold, because a stable offensive line can change everything for a program trying to reset itself. The downside is just as clear, since the current performance issues are not going away overnight, and the Tigers are still waiting to see whether this longer-term strategy can turn into real protection and consistent push up front. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn's Rebuild Suddenly Feels Tied To What These Commits Become
Auburns rebuilding year has already taken on a longer horizon under Alex Golesh, and the bye week only reinforced that shift. At 3-2 through five games, the Tigers are trying to build this thing the slower way, with more emphasis on high school recruiting than a heavy transfer-portal fix. The coaching staff used the open date to get on the road and into stands around the region, and Golesh made his own rounds while Auburns 2027 class kept climbing into the top 15 nationally.
That is where the story starts to feel more important than a typical midseason recruiting update. Auburn already has 25 commitments in that class, and several of those pledges are putting together strong high school seasons that give the staff plenty to point to as they sell the future. The next step is still months away, but for a program in the middle of a rebuild, the real question is whether those commits keep developing into the kind of core that can make this approach work. [Read more 🡒]
Auburns Bye Week Puts Alex Golesh Under Real Pressure
Auburn heads into its bye week at 3-2, and the timing feels less like a breather than a checkpoint after a 24-14 loss to Tennessee exposed a few too many familiar issues. The offense kept getting bogged down by penalties and slow starts, while the defense and the play-calling never quite found a rhythm that could steady the game when it started slipping away.
Alex Golesh has a stretch now to sort through the problems before Auburn sees Georgia next, and it is hard to overstate how much is riding on the answer. DJ Durkin will also be part of the conversation as the Tigers try to clean up the defensive breakdowns, but the bigger question is whether the bye week becomes a reset or just a pause before the same issues show up again. [Read more 🡒]