The hype surrounding Georgia this week has been both exhilarating and nerve-racking. After their great performance against Mississippi State last Saturday, Georgia moved up to #7 in the AP Poll, and there have been a lot of questions about whether or not Georgia is a legitimate CFP contender. At the same time, there is just a little too much Georgia in me not to think that this is exactly when our entire season comes crumbling to the ground.
As Georgia heads north to take on Tennessee, you couldn't have a more stark contrast between two programs.
While Georgia is riding high, seemingly with all the talent in the world, and a coach who has his players ready to go each and every week, Tennessee fans are just looking for a reason to get rid of Butch Jones.
Ignore for just a minute how bad this guy is at talking to the media. (He famously called last year's Tennessee team Champions of Life even though they had a disappointing season, and just last week accused Tennessee beat writers of buying into Fake News when reporting that there was a locker room fight between two of his players). Jones had a chance to put away Florida a few weeks ago, but managed the end of the game so poorly that it gave Florida the only chance it needed to throw the game winning Hail Mary as time expired.
Jones took over after a terrible three-year run from Derek Dooley, and he immediately got Tennessee's recruiting heading in the right direction. However, despite solid recruiting classes, Jones hasn't been able to make a big change on the field. Jones is 33-22 in 4+ seasons in Knoxville. He has never beaten Alabama, Tennessee's biggest rival. He has never won the SEC East. He lost to Vanderbilt last year.
If Tennessee loses tomorrow, it is likely that Jones will be fired at the end of the season.
While the two teams seem like they are heading in different directions, the reality is that there isn't much separating them. Tennessee is incredibly talented, and with their backs against the wall, Georgia is going to get their best shot on Saturday. If Georgia has been reading the headlines instead of preparing for a SEC showdown, the Dawgs are going to fall flat on their face tomorrow afternoon.
However, that isn't going to happen.
As fun as last week was, and man, it was fun. Tomorrow is going to be better.
Throughout the past five seasons, Georgia has had some really high moments. Beating South Carolina and LSU in 2013 to get back on track after a close loss at Clemson to open the season is one example. But after barely beating Tennessee a week later, Georgia came home and got beat by Missouri, then lost on the road to Vanderbilt and the season was over.
What will be fun about tomorrow is that we are going to see just how far Kirby Smart has brought this program. Georgia is going to take care of business by giving a solid overall performance that might lack the glitz and glamour of last week's win, but it will show just how good this team is.
Georgia is going to play great defense like they have all year, and they are going to run the ball all over this Tennessee defense.
Georgia 27 Tennessee 13
Go Dawgs!
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