SEEMS FAMILIAR
Alabama, Georgia picked to collide again in Atlanta
Alabama and Georgia have played three classic football games this decade in Atlanta.
A fourth such occasion would not come by surprise.
Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide and Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs are the overwhelming picks to win their divisions this season in the Southeastern Conference. The league office revealed voting results Friday, which came on the heels of the SEC Media Days that transpired Monday through Thursday in Hoover, Alabama. The picks are based on a poll of 260 media voters.
Though Alabama and Georgia have played just once this decade in the regular season — the Crimson Tide rolled to a 38-10 triumph in Athens in 2015 — their Atlanta showdowns have created a rivalry that was discussed with regularity this week.
“The next step for us, and I don’t mean this to be trite, is Vanderbilt (on Aug. 31),” Smart said. “You have to get to that point, because we don’t have Alabama on our schedule. We know Alabama has been very powerful in this conference for a long time. We respect the job they do.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach Saban and his program. I probably wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for him, but I also understand that we have a really good program, too.”
Alabama has been picked seven consecutive years to win the West, with this the third straight summer Georgia has been tabbed in the East.
Smart was Alabama’s defensive coordinator in 2012, when the Tide held off Mark Richt’s Bulldogs 32-28 in the SEC championship game. Smart was in his second year as Georgia’s head coach in 2017, when the Bulldogs lost the national championship game 26-23 in overtime to the Tide.
Their third Atlanta meeting
occurred last December in the SEC title game, when Alabama scored the final 21 points of a 35-28 win. All three of the Tide’s victories over the Bulldogs in Atlanta — one at the Georgia Dome and two at Mercedes-Benz Stadium — were double-digit comebacks.
“Those games have been hardfought games,” Alabama junior receiver Jerry Jeudy said. “They’ve
been very intense, but they’ve also been fun as well. You’ve always got to have your ‘A’ game when you play Georgia.”
Alabama received 253 of 260 first-place votes in the West tally, with LSU getting five first-place votes and picked to finish runner-up. Texas A&M was pegged third, with Auburn, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Arkansas rounding out the division.
Georgia was picked
to finish first in the East on 233 of 260 ballots, with Florida receiving 21 and Missouri three firstplace votes. Florida and Missouri were tabbed second and third overall, with South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Vanderbilt rounding out the East.
In the race for conference champion, Alabama’s 203 votes easily outdistanced Georgia’s 49. LSU received three votes to win the league, while Auburn, Florida, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Tennessee had one each.
Alabama set an SEC Media Days voting record with 12 players selected to the media’s preseason all-conference first team — quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, running back Najee Harris, receivers Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs III, offensive linemen Alex Leatherwood and Jedrick Wills, defensive lineman Raekwon Davis, linebackers Anfernee Jennings and Dylan Moses and cornerback Trevon Diggs, while Jaylen Waddle was named as a return specialist and as an all-purpose back.
The Tide held the previous high of 10 in 2017.
Georgia’s four firstteam representatives were running back D’Andre Swift, offensive lineman Andrew Thomas, safety J.R. Reed and kicker Rodrigo Blankenship.
Tennessee did not have any representatives on the first-, second- or third-team all-conference offense or defense. Marquez Callaway was named as the second-team return specialist.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.