What to know about top-ranked Georgia football, Missouri's next SEC opponent
After last week’s emotionally devastating loss at Auburn, it might behoove Missouri football to have a less-talented opponent this week to help clean up some of the team’s shortcomings.
Unfortunately, that’s not how the SEC schedule works out.
The Tigers will take on Georgia on Saturday at Faurot Field. The Bulldogs are undefeated and enter the game as the top-ranked team in the nation.
Here’s three things to know about UGA before Saturday’s contest.
They're the defending champs
Before last season, Georgia was something of a meme in college football circles.
So many times throughout the years, the Bulldogs had incredibly talented teams. Still, they hadn’t won a national championship since the Reagan administration. There was even a Twitter account dedicated to how long it had been since Georgia had won a title.
All that ended in January. Everything Kirby Smart had been building in the image of his former boss Nick Saban paid off when the Bulldogs beat Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide in the national championship game.
Georgia pulled it off through consistently excellent recruiting classes, which yielded it one of the best defenses in the history of college football. The Bulldogs had 15 players picked in the 2022 NFL Draft, which set a record for the seven-round draft era.
Four of those players, including Jordan Davis, Quay Walker, Devonte Wyatt and Lewis Cine, went in the first round.
The Bulldogs also showed resilience late in the season that paid off in the championship. In the SEC title game, Georgia played Alabama and it went poorly, with the Bulldogs losing.
After a College Football Playoff semifinal win over Michigan, the two teams faced off again. This time, Georgia wouldn’t be denied and was crowned champion.
They're still good
Entering the season, it was thought that perhaps Alabama would have a better shot than Georgia at returning to the national championship. The Crimson Tide had assembled what looked to be a death star of a roster, and the Bulldogs would need to recover from losing so many players to the NFL.
Going into Week 5, it would appear that perhaps the prevailing wisdom was wrong. Sure, Alabama hasn’t lost a game, despite a near-stumble against Texas. However, the Crimson Tide have looked mortal.
Even in what was a closer game than it needed to be last week against Kent State, Georgia has looked every bit of a team ready to repeat.
The defense is as good as ever, despite the loss of so much pro-level talent. The offense has kept up as well, led by tight end Brock Bowers, who might just be the best player in college football this season.
Quarterback Stetson Bennett entered the 2022 campaign as the unquestioned starter for the first time in his six-year college career and has made good. Bennett has thrown for 1,224 yards and five touchdowns so far this season.
They blew out Missouri last season
When Missouri visited Georgia last season, regular starting quarterback Connor Bazelak was injured and unable to play. Tyler Macon got the start for Missouri and was spelled by Brady Cook throughout the game.
Despite it appearing at times as if Georgia wasn’t quite as prepared for MU compared to most of its 2022 opponents, it didn’t seem to matter who played quarterback for the Tigers. The Bulldogs won 43-6.
On the positive side, Missouri did briefly lead the game. With 5:50 left in the first quarter, Harrison Mevis made a 36-yard field goal to open the scoring.
After that, the Tigers were only able to manage one more Mevis field goal while the Bulldogs went wild. Bennett had a solid day in the matchup, throwing for 255 yards with 13 completions on 19 attempts, including two touchdown passes.
This year’s matchup takes place at Faurot Field, where the Tigers have never beaten Georgia. Missouri’s only win over the Bulldogs came in 2013, when MU went to Athens and came away with an upset win.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: What to know about top-ranked Georgia, Missouri's next SEC opponent
