🏈 "You lost two games, to your toughest opponents. Shut up, sit down, and go play your bowl game." Joel Klatt to the UGA players after their tweets.

[Max]

 

[The Associated Press]

(Published 12/28)

Sugar Bowl: Georgia focused on Texas, not CFP snub

Texas has used a breakthrough, return-to-prominence campaign this fall to garner an invitation to a New Year's Six bowl game -- a dustup against Southeastern Conference powerhouse Georgia on Tuesday in the 2019 Allstate Sugar Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

And while the No. 15 Longhorns have enjoyed their share of success this season, their final grade -- like a report card for the program's resurgence -- will be determined, fairly or not, by their play on the big stage against the No. 5 Bulldogs.

Texas (9-4) is focused on getting a 10th win with a victory over Georgia, a team that's likely good enough to have been included in the College Football Playoff.

Finishing 10-4 sounds a lot better to the Longhorns than ending the season at 9-5 and with back-to-back losses.

To get to that 10th win, Texas will continue to focus on its game-to-game mantra and try to put the hoopla that comes with playing in a bowl game as big as the one in New Orleans on the back burner.

"We do want them to enjoy the time in New Orleans -- our team has earned this," Texas coach Tom Herman said Thursday. "This is a tremendous bowl game and a tremendous city. But we also know that we've come here with a job to do, too, and that's to win the Sugar Bowl championship. When it's time to work, we're going to be dialed in, focused in, and ready to work."

The Longhorns head to New Orleans after a 39-27 loss to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game in Arlington, Texas, on Dec. 1. Texas will be playing in its 55th bowl game and will make its fourth appearance in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

This season, Texas has played in nine one-possession games, going 6-3 in those contests. Prior to the loss in the Big 12 title game, the Longhorns' three regular-season losses came by a combined nine points. Texas has defeated four ranked teams in 2018, tied for second-most in the country.

"We're winning games on toughness," Herman said. "We're winning games on attitude, physicality. We're winning games this season certainly because we genuinely love the guy next to each other. And we don't want to let them down. And that motivates us much more powerfully than if you were by self-centered motivations."

Even though Texas played the CFP-bound Sooners twice this season, Georgia might be the Longhorn' biggest test. The Bulldogs are 11-2 overall and lost to top-ranked Alabama, 35-28, in the SEC Championship game on Dec. 1 in Atlanta.

"That's past us -- the guys have put it behind us," Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm said of the loss to Alabama. "I've put it behind me. We're here now. You can't change anything that's happened in the past. We're excited and ready to play."

Georgia's only other loss this season came in the state of Louisiana on the road at LSU, 36-16, in mid-October. Georgia also has four wins over ranked opponents this season.

Last year, in coach Kirby Smart's second season at Georgia, the Bulldogs were defeated by Alabama in overtime in the National Championship Game.

Georgia cornerback Deandre Baker, the Jim Thorpe Award winner, is skipping the Sugar Bowl to focus on the 2019 NFL Draft.

"We know the hurdle that's in front of us in Texas, a team that has got a great tradition, really good football team," Smart said. "Texas plays in a really good conference, and we have a standard that we play to regardless of who we play. We know we're playing a really good opponent, and our players are excited for that opportunity. This is one of the best bowls in the country."

The Longhorns are 3-1 against the Bulldogs all-time, with Texas posting wins in the 1949 Orange Bowl and in both games of a home-and-home series played in Athens, Ga., and Austin, Texas, respectively, in 1957 and 1958.

Perhaps most memorably, Georgia defeated Texas in the most recent matchup, a 10-9 victory in the 1984 Cotton Bowl, a loss that cost the Longhorns (who were undefeated heading into the game) a national championship.

 

[latimes.com]

Georgia players take to Twitter to complain about CFP selection committee after playoff blowouts

Saturday provided a fairly boring start to the College Football Playoffs, as both semifinal games were massive blowouts.

No. 2 Clemson dominated No. 3 Notre Dame 30-3 in the Cotton Bowl, and No. 1 Alabama jumped up to a quick 21-0 lead in the first quarter against No. 4 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl before grabbing a 31-10 halftime lead.

While Oklahoma rallied late and only fell 45-34, Notre Dame’s performance and Oklahoma’s early struggles provided plenty of fodder for those who wanted to see Georgia in a playoff spot instead.

Now remember, there’s no way that Notre Dame should have been left out of the playoff. It didn’t lose once in the regular season. And Georgia — who was dominated by LSU 36-16 in the regular season — fell to Alabama in the SEC Championship game, while Oklahoma won its conference championship game and only suffered one loss. It makes sense that Oklahoma got in instead of Georgia based on the current system.

Those facts, though, didn’t stop Georgia players from taking to Twitter to mock the selection committee for making what they felt was a mistake.

Playoffs
— Brian Herrien (@brianherrienn) December 30, 2018​

@CFBPlayoff this is a joke
— Brian Herrien (@brianherrienn) December 30, 2018​

“The best 4 should get in” #exposed

— ⁶Monty Rice (@RiceMonty) December 29, 2018



Look, it’s easy to look back now after two blowout games and say that Georgia should have been in the playoff. But based on the current system, they weren’t going to get in — especially with a 20-point loss to LSU on their resume.

So instead, Georgia will have to settle for No. 15 Texas in the Sugar Bowl — no matter how many of its players join the rest of the sports world on Twitter complaining about Saturday’s games.

 

[planomateo]

Hope Texas smokes these bitches.

 

[TerryP]

Today, how true does this ring? Back in October now...

"It's a George Custer part deux." I didn't get it at first but when he followed that with "they feel like they have everyone surrounded."

As it boils down it's his opinion we as Bama fans should take very little from what happened between UGA and LSU. As I listened to his little rant it came down to this--the UGA players, and their young coaches alike, are missing a fundamental trait--leadership. He said, and I quote, "What you're seeing is a lot of pomposity, bluster, gasconade if you will" There's no basis for it--it's all false bravado in other words.

 

[planomateo]

"We're not in this business of rating loses" --- Did he really say that?!?!

And he's using a baseball analogy in a football discussion. I'm laughing.

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

I have NO problem with Texas beating the mouthy Dawgs......I only wish that both of them could lose.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

Horns...never liked UGA,....dont really like Horns....

 

[BamaFan334]

Same guy also said we weren't worthy last year. Him and the other guy opposite of Shannon Sharpe dogged us bad last year, until we won, now he kisses our tails. He's just another typical journalist.

 

[Max]

"What you're seeing is a lot of pomposity, bluster, gasconade if you will"

All bark, no bite.

 

[bamachine]

Methinks Kirby is allergic to Sugar. Bama loses their two trips to the Sugar Bowl with him on the sidelines. Now Uga loses their Sugar Bowl with him on the sidelines. Bama wins their one Sugar Bowl without him on the sidelines.

Note: The LSU game in NOLA was not the Sugar Bowl, it was the BCSCG

 

[RollllTide!]

Talked to my South GA brother after the game. He said being a GA fan is like having this good looking girl friend that runs around on you and then tells you about it.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

I was listening to the georgia radio broadcast on my way home last night. The sideline guy is a old sportscaster, Chuck Dowdle I think, and a major homer. He was yapping pregame about how Georgia would make a statement about how they should've been in the playoff, and if Texas thinks they have burnt orange as a color, they would be really burnt after the game.

I love it when georgia radio guys have to eat their words...

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

Coach Bryant had some words that Kirby needs to follow in the future. Kirby got to eat his SECCG post game PC last night before millions.

“Don’t talk too much. Don’t pop off. Don’t talk after the game until you cool off.”

 

[rick4bama]

I was listening to the georgia radio broadcast on my way home last night. The sideline guy is a old sportscaster, Chuck Dowdle I think, and a major homer. He was yapping pregame about how Georgia would make a statement about how they should've been in the playoff, and if Texas thinks they have burnt orange as a color, they would be really burnt after the game.

I love it when georgia radio guys have to eat their words...

He the sportscaster from Atlanta WSB-TV Channel 2. Yes he also does the Kirby TV show too!

 

[BamaFan334]

I was listening to the georgia radio broadcast on my way home last night. The sideline guy is a old sportscaster, Chuck Dowdle I think, and a major homer. He was yapping pregame about how Georgia would make a statement about how they should've been in the playoff, and if Texas thinks they have burnt orange as a color, they would be really burnt after the game.

I love it when georgia radio guys have to eat their words...

Yeah, Dowdle is their little do-boy on the radio network. He used to be head sports guy in Atlanta. He went to Georgia, so I'm guessing he's cool with his position. But yes, him Zier, and ascott Howard are annoying as hell.