Coach Smart kept telling us that Kent State is a good team, and he was right.

Of course, KSU is not going to the playoff, and they would not be competitive playing an SEC schedule, but the Golden Flashes did not accept hopelessness as they traveled to Athens to give the Bulldogs a fight Saturday afternoon. Kent State has players with size and speed who believe in their coaches, execute the game plan, and never quit. However, even on a bad day, superior talent won.

Fumbles, dropped passes, and an opponent who is unimpressed with one’s ranking combined to provide an underwhelming victory for the number one team in the country, but what does the result mean? Did the first three games give us a false read on the 2022 Dawgs? Coach Smart would say that we had an incorrect assumption about Kent State rather than Georgia:

“Turnovers. Three of them, maybe four total when you count the fake punt, that was like a turnover, they got an extra possession. It makes it hard. When you come out ahead like we did sometimes you take wins like that for granted. I have a lot of respect for that team and that program. That was a tough, hard-fought win.”

Columbia, Missouri, is the next stop for the Red and Black. The Tigers are 2-2 after a 17-14 overtime loss at Auburn on Saturday. Having missed a field goal at the end of regulation and fumbled on the Auburn one-yard line to gift wrap the win for the Plainsmen, Mizzou is sure to see the Kent State score as a sign that the Dawgs will be vulnerable in the friendly confines of Faurot Field.

Missouri will be ready. Georgia must put Kent in the rearview, relax and play their game. Expect the team to look more like the unit that dispatched Oregon than the one who bobbled, dropped, and fumbled their way to victory over the Golden Flashes.