Kirby Smart has seen Georgia in this spot before: a heavy favorite on paper, a road trip in the SEC waiting to test that number, and no interest in letting the spread do the talking.
The Bulldogs are favored by 24.5 points at FanDuel for Saturday’s trip to Arkansas in Fayetteville, a line that puts this game in unusual territory even for a program that has spent years expected to win. Since Smart took over in 2017, Georgia has played more than 100 games against Power Four opponents, Cincinnati in the CFP and Notre Dame, and only six of those road matchups came with the Bulldogs laying this kind of number away from home.
Those six games went Georgia’s way by an average score of 45-9. The tightest of the bunch was the No. 1 Bulldogs’ 26-22 win at Missouri in 2022.
Still, Smart made it clear Monday that the ranking, the odds and the reputation mean nothing once the game kicks off.
“Playing on the road in the SEC is - humility is always a week away,” Smart said. “It’s a tough environment regardless of where you play in the SEC.
There are no bad environments in the SEC. There are only raucous environments in the SEC, and they're really tough to play on; tougher earlier in the year than later.”
Georgia has already lived through a version of that warning in Fayetteville. In 2020, the Bulldogs entered the Arkansas game as 28-point favorites and ended up needing backup quarterback Stetson Bennett in the second quarter to shake loose an offense that was stuck in the mud. Georgia was trailing at halftime as a four-touchdown favorite before Bennett settled things down, finishing 20 for 29 for 211 yards and two touchdowns in a 37-10 win.
After that game, Smart said his team needed to “Look in the Mirror” after the sloppy start.
“You find out a lot about yourself when you look in the mirror and you have to say: ‘What do I have to do make my team better?’ I think the whole team has to do that - every man on our team from special teams to defense to offense,” Smart said after the game.
Over the last 11 seasons, Smart’s Bulldogs have been an average 14-point favorite against Power Four opponents.
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