Kirby Smart won’t have to answer any questions about facing Nick Saban. Georgia’s coach will, however, have to answer questions about facing a team that just beat his Bulldogs 40-17.
Some, perhaps most, Georgia fans will regard Alabama's Iron Bowl loss as a break. I'm on record as saying, "Not so fast, my friends." Auburn was clearly playing better than Alabama over the regular season's final month. Auburn might be playing better than any team in the land. Next Saturday in Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be no day at the beach.
It won’t, however, be as rough as the setting on Nov. 11 in Jordan-Hare Stadium. The intractably roofed stadium will be climate-controlled and split, fan-wise, down the middle. Georgia will have the advantage of having just seen Auburn’s A-game. Georgia might also get Auburn without Kerryon Johnson. (And Kamryn Pettway was already hurt.)
I’m not surprised that the Tigers won. I’m more than a bit surprised that Alabama played so badly. You don’t expect that of any good team, and Alabama has, over the past decade, been the absolute best. But Bama spit the bit Saturday in a way it never does, rendering moot something I’d had semi-planned for next week had today’s result been different: “Why Georgia will beat Bama.”
That’s gone now. So is the teacher-pupil angle. The Kerryon Johnson angle, however, just assumed immense proportions. Georgia is one step from the College Football Playoff, and the team it’s about to face saw its best player get hurt Saturday.
