Georgia Set to Face Ole Miss in Sugar Bowl Rematch with College Football Playoff Stakes on the Line
The College Football Playoff picture is officially locked in for Georgia, and it’s a familiar face waiting on the other side. After Ole Miss rolled past Tulane 41-10, the Rebels punched their ticket to New Orleans, setting up a high-stakes Sugar Bowl clash with the Bulldogs on January 1.
Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Georgia enters the game as the No. 3 seed following a 12-1 campaign that included a dominant 28-7 win over Alabama in the SEC Championship. It’s been a season defined by resilience and growth, and now the Bulldogs are staring down a rematch with a team that gave them all they could handle earlier this fall.
That first meeting? A wild one.
Back on October 18 in Athens, Georgia found itself in an unexpected shootout. Ole Miss came out swinging, scoring touchdowns on its first five possessions.
The Bulldogs trailed 35-26 heading into the fourth quarter, and it looked like the Rebels might pull off the upset.
But then came the turnaround. Georgia clamped down, pitching a 17-0 shutout in the final frame to escape with a 43-35 win. It wasn’t pretty, but it was gritty-and it told us a lot about this team’s DNA.
“I just told the guys, that’s a culture win,” head coach Kirby Smart said after that game. “You don’t win that game if you’re not physically tough, mentally tough.
We call it hard to kill. The one thing we are, we’re hard to kill.
We won’t go away.”
That mindset has carried Georgia through the back half of the season. Since that shootout with Ole Miss, the Bulldogs’ defense has flipped a switch. Over the last four games, they’ve allowed just two touchdowns and a total of 128 rushing yards-a night-and-day difference from the group that got gashed in October.
Smart credits some of that improvement to personnel tweaks and sharper execution on third down.
“We made a couple changes to third down in terms of skill set of players, and we got better,” Smart said during a recent appearance on a podcast with David Pollack. “We were a young defense.
We were a nervous, anxious defense, and we’re slowly becoming a more mature defense. But we’ve practiced better too, and I think that’s a lot of it.”
There’s also a new wrinkle on the Ole Miss sideline. Lane Kiffin is no longer in charge-he’s now at LSU.
The Rebels are rolling into the Sugar Bowl under the leadership of Pete Golding, who was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach. It’s a notable shift, especially considering how explosive Ole Miss looked under Kiffin earlier in the year.
One concern for the Rebels heading into the rematch: the health of running back Kewan Lacy, who exited the Tulane game with a left shoulder injury in the third quarter. His status could be a key storyline as game day approaches.
Georgia is scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on December 29, giving the team a few days to settle in and prep for what could be another four-quarter battle. The winner of the Sugar Bowl will move on to face the winner of Ohio State vs. Miami in the Fiesta Bowl on January 8.
Sugar Bowl Details:
- Matchup: Georgia vs.
Ole Miss
- Date: January 1
- Time: 8 p.m. ET
- Location: New Orleans
- TV: ESPN
It’s a rematch with playoff implications, a battle-tested Georgia squad facing an Ole Miss team with a new voice at the helm. And if the first meeting was any indication, we’re in for a New Year’s Day showdown that could go down to the wire.