Experienced Dawgs:
Georgia has familiar feel in the SEC championship game and at its Atlanta home.
ATHENS, Ga. – From headliners Jake Fromm and J.R. Reed to special teamers Nate McBride and Prather Hudson, Georgia’s roster is chock full of players who have lived through the joy and pain that has come the Bulldogs’ way at the Southeastern Conference championship game.
Georgia heads to its third straight SEC title game Dec. 7 against LSU with 39 players who played in either the 2017 statement win over Auburn or the 2018 crushing loss to Alabama at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“Knowing you’ve been here before, you don’t get the same amount of chills,” senior wide receiver Tyler Simmons said. “You’re more relaxed and more trusting on your training and dependent on your training in the game. It’s just more calm and collected.”
Fromm, the junior quarterback, completed 41 of 61 passes for 484 yards with five TDs and no interceptions in the two SEC title games in Atlanta.
Running back D’Andre Swift, who has a left shoulder contusion and is expected to play, has rushed for a combined 163 yards and two TDs on 23 carries with a TD catch.
Georgia returns 13 starters from the 2018 game (not including kicker Rodrigo Blankenship and punter Jake Camarda) where it had Alabama on the ropes before it let it slip away in the second half and lost 35-28, and seven starters from the 2017 game when it knocked off Auburn 28-7 for the program’s first league title since 2005.
“I think experience is valuable,” coach Kirby Smart said. “I think the experiences in the Mercedes Stadium, the routine, you go over there Friday, you walk through, we don’t typically walk through where we play. Well, this is a different deal, so we go over there and walk through where we play and a lot of our kids have done that a couple times now, but we got 20 or so guys that have never done it because they’re freshmen and it will be their first time.”
Fromm, Reed and offensive lineman Andrew Thomas started in both SEC championship games, but several Georgia players downplayed how much those games will be a factor against No. 1 LSU.
“I don’t kind of think that stuff matters whether you’ve played there or not,” said senior running back Brian Herrien, who will play in his third SEC championship game. “You’ve been there, you get a little complacent. If you haven’t, you’re still a little hungry but you don’t always have to be complacent when you’ve been there. You just know how to handle it when you do.”
Georgia’s starting safeties Richard LeCounte and Reed each had an interception in last year’s SEC title game when linebacker Tae Crowder and Reed shared the team-lead with eight tackles.
“Sure, it gives them some confidence, obviously,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron said. “I think those guys have been there before, so I’m sure they think that gives them some confidence. But, you know, we have a mature team, and these guys are going to be focused.”
LSU will be playing its first game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium
and its first in Atlanta since a 25-24 loss to Clemson in the Peach Bowl on Dec. 31, 2012.
The Tigers set a program record by scoring at least 40 points in 10 games, but it hasn’t gone up against a group like Georgia, Orgeron said.
“This is the best defense we’ve played all year,” he said of a unit that is second nationally, allowing 10.4 points per game.
Smart doesn’t view the previous times playing in the SEC title game as a big advantage. “Their team has been through a lot of tough battles,” he said. “When you come out of the SEC ... you’ve been through the gauntlet. Whether you’re undefeated, you’ve got one loss, or you may have two losses, you’ve been through some tough, hardfought battles, and I think that gives this such a classic matchup.”
LSU won at Texas in Week 2. The Longhorns’ season turned into a big disappointment, but it was a top 10 team heading into that game. The Tigers outlasted a No. 2 Alabama team Nov. 2.
Georgia junior inside linebacker Monty Rice said he doesn’t see the Bulldogs making a third straight SEC title game trip as a big factor. “Trevor Lawrence never started in the national championship last year,” he said of last season when the Clemson quarterback was a freshman. “It’s not about that. It’s about how you go out there and play. We could put (backup) Stetson Bennett out there. He’s never played in an SEC championship and he can do great. I feel like that doesn’t really matter.”
Fromm welcomes a chance to play on a stage where he has performed well and in a venue he is familiar with, including the national title loss to Alabama in the ’17 season.
“It’s nice for a quarterback,” he said. “You know it’s going to be dry and you know it’s going to be roughly 75 degrees in there. It’s fun. For me, it’s more about the speed of the game. On turf, it’s a little bit faster, and that really helps me play faster.”