ATHENS - Mike Bobo isn’t interested in style points. For him, the 27-8 win over Florida was about the scoreboard, the physical edge and the kind of football Georgia wants to play when the game starts tilting its way.
That approach will be tested again Saturday night, when No. 2 Georgia heads to No. 12 Ole Miss at 7:30 p.m. with another step toward defending its SEC title and securing a College Football Playoff spot on the line.
Georgia’s offense has piled up the numbers this season - 41 points per game, a 171.46 passing efficiency rating, 51.6% on third down and 200.1 rushing yards per game, all good for top-tier SEC rankings. But Bobo knows those stats don’t always tell the whole story. In the Oklahoma and Florida games, turnovers from the defense helped create huge halftime cushions, 28-0 and 24-0, and that changed how Georgia handled the back halves of both games.
Against Florida, the Bulldogs leaned into the kind of game plan Bobo likes: run it, control it, and don’t invite mistakes.
“It wasn’t perfect for us by any stretch on Saturday,” Bobo said in his interview with UGA’s NIL-media website, Glory Glory, “but it’s a bottom line business and our defensive played outstanding and we were able to run the ball.”
Georgia ran for 217 yards and averaged 5.2 yards per carry, while the passing game took a back seat with just 101 yards through the air. Gunner Stockton threw only nine passes in the second half as Georgia protected the lead.
“It’s hard to run the ball in this league, but I felt like we were moving those guys early,” said Bobo, whose 2014 UGA offense still holds the school mark for scoring (41.3 points per game).
“We didn’t hit some of our shots downfield, but I felt good about how we were running the ball. Our guys take pride in running the ball …”
Stockton’s role fits that identity. He may not be the kind of quarterback Bobo once had in Matthew Stafford, the No. 1 overall NFL draft pick, or Aaron Murray, the SEC’s all-time leading passer, but he brings toughness and production that match this Georgia team.
“He had some dirty yards that were huge in the (Florida) football game …. he’s always a threat, and the bigger the game we’re probably going to run him a little more,” Bobo said of Stockton, who rushed for 45 yards on 12 carries against Florida.
“He’s doing a good job of protecting himself when he’s going down and going headfirst. He’s protecting the ball and he’s protecting himself with his shoulder pads.”
Ole Miss brings a different kind of challenge, and Bobo expects the Rebels’ defense to make Georgia earn every inch. Pete Golding’s group moves its front around, brings pressure and tries to keep offenses from landing the big play.
“They do a lot defensively, they do a lot with their front, they’re not afraid to move their front,” Bobo said.
“He plays coverage on the back end by blitzing a lot, so he doesn’t give up the explosive play, and he makes you beat him, and it’s hard offensively to have 8- and 10- play drives and score touchdowns.”
That’s exactly the kind of game Georgia ran into the last time these teams met, in the CFP Sugar Bowl quarterfinal on Jan. 1 in New Orleans. The Bulldogs went just 3 of 13 on third down and had to string together five scoring drives of seven plays, 12 plays, 10 plays, six plays and 12 plays. Each one covered at least 56 yards.
Georgia also had only two plays longer than 25 yards, and both came from players no longer on the roster: Cash Jones on a 26-yard play and Colbie Young on a 31-yarder.
“They don’t give up a lot of explosives,” Bobo said, “and they make you earn it.”
The setting only adds to the challenge. Ole Miss has won 16 straight home games at Vaught Hemingway Stadium, and Bobo expects the crowd to be a major factor.
“I’ve been watching some tape and a lot of people are having some false starts against these guys, especially at their place,” Bobo said. “We have to do a good job of handling that, communication is at a premium.
“We’ve got to simplify some things so we can play fast and don’t let the crowd take us out of executing our offense.”
In Other News...
Georgia Just Got A CFP Warning Fans Can't Ignore
The first College Football Playoff rankings of the season brought Georgia exactly where it expected to be in the conversation, sitting at No. 2 behind undefeated Miami. For a Bulldogs team with championship ambitions, the placement is a reminder that the margin for error is already thin, and that every week from here carries the kind of weight that can reshape the bracket picture.
The bigger buzz around the rankings came from the chaos around the rest of the top 10, where Alabama landed at No. 5 despite two losses and Tennessee was slotted much lower even with a head-to-head win over the Crimson Tide. Utah at No. 3 and UCLA at No. 8 only added to the debate over how the committee is weighing records, schedule strength and results on the field, leaving Georgia in a spot where it is secure for now but still very much watching the board. [Read more 🡒]
Georgias CFP Position Now Hinges On One Committee Debate
Georgias place in the first College Football Playoff rankings came with a familiar kind of respect and a fresh reminder of how tightly the margins can be in November. The committee slotted Miami at No. 1 and put Georgia right behind the Hurricanes at No. 2, while also showing a willingness to reward schedule strength by keeping Alabama at No. 5 despite two losses. It was an early snapshot, but one that made clear the Bulldogs are firmly in the national title mix and already part of the debate that will shape the rest of the season.
What makes Georgias position so interesting is that the committees explanation for the opening order did not stop with the top two. Ohio State and Notre Dame were also part of the discussion, with the group pointing to the factors that separated teams in the initial rankings. For Georgia, that means every week from here on out is about protecting a rsum that already looks strong, because the committee has shown it will weigh more than record alone when it starts sorting out the field. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Just Got A Playoff Reality Check Before A Huge Week
The first College Football Playoff rankings of the season delivered an early snapshot of where Georgia stands in the national picture, and it came with a little less certainty than the Bulldogs might have hoped for. Miami landed at No. 1, Georgia checked in at No. 2, and the rest of the top tier included a mix of undefeated and one-loss teams that leaves plenty of room for movement as the season tightens up.
Indianas placement at No. 4 and Alabama at No. 5 only added to the sense that the race is still wide open, especially with several marquee games still ahead involving teams near the top. For Georgia, the ranking is a reminder that the margin for error is thin and that the next stretch will go a long way toward shaping where the Bulldogs land when the playoff picture starts to sharpen. [Read more 🡒]