Seven weeks after a showcase showdown between SEC powerhouse Georgia football and conference newcomer Texas, the teams line up against each other again on a neutral field in the heart of Bulldog Country.
Georgia is playing in its fourth straight SEC championship game against a Longhorns team that won the Big 12 championship game last season in its first appearance since 2018.
Both No. 2 Texas and No. 5 Georgia are considered safely in the 12-team College Football Playoff field, but the winner of the 4 p.m. game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta will secure a first-round bye.
Texas is 11-1 with that only loss 30-15 to the Bulldogs in Austin on Oct. 19.
“They’ve been really consistent throughout the season,” Georgia quarterback Carson Beck said. “They pose a good challenge for us and it’s for the SEC so I’m excited and I know the guys are excited for this opportunity.”
This is the seventh SEC championship game for Georgia under coach Kirby Smart, winning in 2017 and 2022.
“It’s two teams battling for a conference championship, which has eluded many teams in this conference,” Smart said. “With the new teams in our conference, the strength of this thing is just incredible.”
Carson Beck is playing perhaps his best football as a Bulldog, shaking off a six-game stretch that included two losses where he threw 12 interceptions.
Over the last three games, Beck has thrown for 941 yards with 11 touchdowns with no interceptions while completing 64 percent of his passes.
He was 23 of 41 for 175 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions in the win at Texas.
Beck said he’s learned to not try “to do too much and just trying to play within the offense, knowing when to try to make a play and knowing when to just chalk it up and move on to the next one. There’s three downs to get a first down for a reason. You don’t have to try to get it all in one play.”
Georgia may be slow-starting on offense, but except for in the Ole Miss game, it eventually puts up the points, scoring at least 27 in regulation in eight of its last nine games.
The Bulldogs played their best game on defense against Texas, ringing up seven sacks with Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams combining for five. The Bulldogs held Quinn Ewers to season-lows of 58.1 completion percentage and 4.9 yards per attempt.
“There’s been a lot of games since our last game against Texas all the way to Georgia Tech that we haven’t played as well as I would like,” Smart said. “Can’t put an exact finger on what that might be. I know this: We’re going to have to be playing better than we’ve been playing because Texas is playing really good.”
Georgia has had trouble stopping the run, especially of late. Meanwhile, Texas has hit its stride with its ground game.
Quintrevion Wisner rushed for 186 yards on 33 carries against Texas AM and 158 on 26 with a touchdown against Kentucky the last two weeks.
“They look a lot more physical,” Georgia safety Malaki Starks said.
Texas had just 29 rushing yards on 27 carries in the loss to Georgia.
“We made an emphasis about a month ago that we had to improve upon it,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “Our rhythm was off. Our timing was off. We were getting penalties. The running back’s tracks weren’t married with where the offensive line was. I think the commitment to getting that cleaned up gave me more confidence to call more stuff running the football, but it also allowed for the variety in the running game really to come to life, as well.”
Georgia is 44th nationally in run defense at 135.83 yards per game.
It gave up 260 rushing yards to Georgia Tech a week after allowing 226 to UMass, the first time Georgia’s given up 200 yards rushing in back-to-back games since 2016 against La.-Lafayette and Georgia Tech.
Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King rushed for 110 yards and three touchdowns and UMass quarterback Ahmad Haston rushed for 50 on three carries.
Texas backup Arch Manning had the biggest run against Georgia in the first game of 21 yards.
He scored on a 15-yard designed run on a fourth-and-2 last week against Texas A&M.
“He can run their entire offense while at the same time creating designed runs or off-schedule runs,” Smart said. “Both are scary because designed runs with him are tough to defend because you’re having to defend the whole field.”
Georgia forced turnovers to set up short fields for the offense in the first game. Georgia won with just 283 yards of total offense.
Texas leads the nation in yards per play allowed at 3.99 and is second in points per game give up at 11.7
“They try to keep the quarterback off kilter, try not to let you get comfortable as an offense, which that’s who they are as a defense,” Beck said. “That poses a challenge for us.”
Texas 27, Georgia 24
Georgia’s defense set the tone in the first game between these teams, but has been prone to giving up explosive plays down the stretch this season. This game could go either way, but there’s more confidence right now in Texas, which hasn’t lost since its last game with the Bulldogs.
