Coming off a 31-13 victory over Auburn, the Bulldogs improved to 4-1 on the season and 2-1 in SEC Play. Mississippi State was idle this past Saturday. MSU comes in at 1-4 and 0-2 in the league. Last time out, MSU had huge strides and threw a scare into Texas, going toe-to-toe with the then top-ranked team in the country, until the Longhorns pulled away to win 35-13 in Austin.
The Athens Bulldogs come into the game with a school record 27-game home winning streak. Georgia last lost at Sanford Stadium to South Carolina 20-17 in double overtime in 2019.
These two last met two years ago in Starkville. It was a cold and windy night at Scott Field, and Georgia came away with a 45-19 victory.
State has gone through a great deal of turnover. Mike Leach, beloved and highly successful coach, sadly passed away on December 12, 2022. Mississippi State was 8-4 and bowl bound. Zach Arnett coached the Reliaquest bowl, which State won over Illinois to finish at 9-4. State slumped to 5-7 a year ago and parted ways with Arnett.
Enter Jeff Lebby. An outstanding offensive coordinator at Ole Miss and then Oklahoma, Lebby was widely regarded as one of the country’s top assistants.
Mississippi State opened the season with a 56-7 win over Eastern Kentucky. Since then, MSU has lost four in a row. The Maroon Bulldogs lost at Arizona State 30-23, then fell at home to Toledo 41-27. Florida came to Starkville and beat Mississippi State 45-28. Then came the aforementioned loss at Texas, which was close most of the way.
This past Saturday was a wild ride in college football, featuring a slew of upsets. Georgia’s impressive win over Auburn looked even better throughout the day as highly ranked teams were bitten by the upset bug.
One thing is certain, teams better be ready every Saturday, or anything can happen. To think, in the first top five vs. top five showdown of the year, Alabama beat Georgia in an incredible game, contested in Tuscaloosa on September 28. The next week, after the Bulldogs rebounded to beat Auburn, the Crimson Tide fell to Vanderbilt in Nashville.
Mississippi State has been Georgia’s most infrequent foe amongst the original members of the mighty SEC. This will be just the 27th all-time meeting between the two, with Georgia leading the all-time series 20-6.
Kirby Smart has delivered a golden era of incredible gridiron success at his beloved alma mater. As a player, he was a part of two victories over Mississippi State – 38-19 in Starkville in 1996, and an epic 47-0 triumph the following year. Smart’s Bulldogs are 3-0 against MSU.