ATHENS – Georgia became SEC East champions at 10:26 p.m. Saturday. That’s when Mississippi State’s 31-17 win over Kentucky became official.
Three hundred fifty-nine miles away, the news slowly wafted toward Athens via social media and landed on the Bulldogs. They had not long been on the ground from their return flight from Jacksonville, Fla., where they were still coming down from the thrill of beating Florida 34-7 earlier Saturday.
If anyone had bothered to inform Georgia’s players that clinching the Eastern Division was even a possibility, it largely was forgotten by the time they found they actually had.
“It was more about beating Florida,” sophomore receiver Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint said Monday. “There was a little celebration, but that was it, and it was on to this new week.”
It certainly came earlier than expected. Georgia tied Auburn (2004) and Alabama (1993) for the earliest division clinch in SEC history.
Now the No. 1-ranked Bulldogs (8-0, 6-0 SEC) will play host to Missouri (4-4, 1-3 SEC) on Saturday (noon, ESPN). They opened as a 37.5-point favorite, the most points Georgia has been favored by against an SEC opponent in the modern era, topping the 35-point line it got against Vanderbilt earlier this season.
The Bulldogs also are expected to be installed as big favorites in their other three regular-season games against Tennessee (4-4, 2-3), Charleston Southern (3-4, 2-3 Big South) and Georgia Tech (3-5, 2-4 ACC). But regardless of what happens in those games, Georgia knows it is going back to Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the fourth time in the past five seasons under coach Kirby Smart.
The Bulldogs will have to wait a while to learn their opponent. Currently, No. 3 Alabama (7-1, 4-1 West) and Auburn (6-2, 3-1) lead that half of the league. The Crimson Tide hosts LSU 4-4, 2-3) on Saturday, while Auburn travels to Texas A&M (6-2, 3-2). It may not be decided until the teams play each other Nov. 27 in Tuscaloosa.
Smart doesn’t want the players to overlook the accomplishment of getting “back to the Benz.”
“A lot of hard work,” Smart said. “A lot of support from our fan base and our administration, and a lot of recruiting. The expectation is to win the East and play for an SEC championship. I think it is the greatest conference in the country in terms of the competitive nature, and the recruiting battles are really tough. I am really proud of our guys and the work that they have done.”
Senior safety Christopher Smith, who has been a member of the last five Georgia teams, appreciates the accomplishment.
“It definitely says a lot,” he said during UGA’s media day Monday. “We put in a lot of work to be able to make it to the SEC Championship (game) every year. That’s always been the goal. That’s a step forward to making it to the playoff and the national championship and things like that. We always take pride in winning all our games in the East.”
That quest continues over the next two weeks. In the meantime, the SEC does provide a divisional championship trophy, which likely is being engraved in Birmingham this week and soon will be shipped to Athens.
It’s doubtful that its arrival will be celebrated or even acknowledged. The accomplishment Saturday night went unnoticed by many Saturday night.
“We are not really focused on that right now,” senior guard Justin Shaffer said. “We are focused on Missouri because we have Missouri this week. When the time comes, we will celebrate. But right now we are still locked in for each game week-by-week.”
Said Rosemy-Jacksaint: “To be honest, it’s not really a goal; it’s really a steppingstone. I’ll say that. Winning the East is a huge accomplishment for us, but that’s not our main accomplishment. We still have a long ways to go to get to the end goal that we want to get to.”
