Georgia football set for rematch against Ole Miss in Sugar Bowl

Georgia has prior experience with Ole Miss, having beaten the Rebels 43-35 earlier this season.

Georgia got off to a poor start in that game, which was played in Athens on Oct. 18. The Bulldogs allowed touchdowns on their first five defensive possessions of the game and trailed 35-26 at the start of the fourth quarter.

But a 17-0 fourth quarter gave the Bulldogs the winning margin.

“I just told the guys, ‘That’s a culture win,’” Smart said after the game. “You don’t win that game if you’re not physically tough, mentally tough. We call it, ‘hard to kill.’ The one thing we are, we’re hard to kill. We won’t go away.”

There is one noticeable difference regarding Ole Miss, as the Rebels have a different head coach. Lane Kiffin is now at LSU, with Pete Golding being promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach.

As for Georgia, its defense has played significantly better since the first Ole Miss game. In the previous four games, the Bulldogs have given up just two touchdowns and 128 total rushing yards.

“We made a couple changes to third down in terms of skill set of players, and we got better,” Smart said on a recent podcast appearance with David Pollack. “Like every week we talked about how do we get better, and we got better every week, and we still haven’t reached the pinnacle of what we can be. We were a young defense. We were a nervous, anxious defense, and we’re slowly becoming a more mature defense. But we’ve practiced better too, and I think that’s a lot of it.”

Georgia is set to arrive in New Orleans on Dec. 29 ahead of the Jan. 1 game. The winner of the Sugar Bowl will face the winner of Ohio State-Miami in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 8.

Georgia-Ole Miss Sugar Bowl game time, TV channel

Game time: 8 p.m. ET

TV Network: ESPN

Location: New Orleans

Date: Jan. 1