After clinching the SEC East title for the second straight year, the Georgia Bulldogs should root for the LSU Tigers over the Alabama Crimson Tide tonight.
It was the Dawgs’ day in the sun, as the No. 6 Georgia Bulldogs clinched the SEC East for the second consecutive year, as they put away the No. 9 Kentucky Wildcats 34-17 in Lexington.
Georgia improves to 8-1 on the year and 6-1 in SEC play. The Dawgs have one SEC game left on the slate. That would be at home versus the cross-divisional rival Auburn Tigers next Saturday.
Awaiting Georgia in the 2018 SEC Championship Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta will be the winner of Saturday’s night prize-fight between the No.1 Alabama Crimson Tide and the No. 3 LSU Tigers in Death Valley.
Knowing that Georgia will presumably be the underdog in this conference title bout, which team would the Dawgs rather face on Dec. 1 in Atlanta: Alabama or LSU? Does it really matter?
Well, Georgia has lost its last two games coincidentally to both LSU and Alabama. Georgia got boat raced earlier in the season versus LSU. Tiger Stadium was raucous that October afternoon in Baton Rouge, as LSU clobbered Georgia, 36-16. Georgia saw its championship season a year ago end in overtime in Atlanta versus Alabama in the national title bout, as the Crimson Tide proved victorious.
While surely Georgia head coach Kirby Smart would want to get the best of his mentor in Nick Saban in a few weeks, we have to like Georgia’s chances against the Bayou Bengals in a neutral-site affair. Here are few reasons that Dawg Nation needs to root very hard for LSU this evening over Alabama.
First, Georgia is very familiar with the type of ball game LSU will like to play. The Dawgs will have tape on LSU’s new starting quarterback Joe Burrow, so that will help in their defensive gameplan. With a newfound rushing attack headlined by D’Andre Swift and Elijah Holyfield, expect Georgia’s offense to not be so grossly one-dimensional if they were to meet the Tigers again.
Second, LSU will be very battle-tested heading into this potential SEC Championship Game. The Tigers will have had to beat the juggernaut Crimson Tide at home as an underdog to keep their College Football Playoff dreams alive. Let’s not forget that LSU hast two more division rivals left on the slate that would love to play spoiler in the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Texas A&M Aggies.
Third, should LSU beat Alabama, this would be Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron’s first SEC Championship Game, not only as a head coach, but ever. The lights are very bright in Atlanta, and Smart has had plenty of big-game experience in this neutral-site affair. Smart has been on the winning side of this game in Atlanta several times, both as Georgia’s head coach and Alabama’s former defensive coordinattor.
Lastly, this game will above all be a neutral-site game. Last year, Georgia got obliterated by Auburn down on The Plains. Though Gus Malzahn’s team beat Alabama at home last season to reach the title bout, Georgia crushed Auburn in the rematch from the jump. Georgia will have had plenty of time to scout LSU, and what went wrong in Baton Rouge, if these two SEC teams were to meet for a second time this season.
Frankly, we are more likely to see a national championship rematch with Alabama winning the SEC West than a rematch between the Dawgs and the Bayou Bengals down in the Peach State. However, Dawg Nation should be able to sit back and enjoy the best SEC game of the season, knowing Georgia is in it and one of these two SEC West behemoths will not.
While Georgia can hang with either of these teams, there’s no doubt that the Dawgs want LSU to top Alabama. Pretty much everybody outside of Tuscaloosa is pulling for that, especially the fine folks that call the Classic City home. The 2018 SEC Championship Game is shaping up to be an all-timer, so get excited for that.