Kirby Smart ahead of Georgia-Tennessee: 'We're not playing the College Football Playoff committee'

Georgia was the College Football Playoff committee’s first team out of the 12-team CFP after it dropped to No. 12 in the latest batch of rankings after its loss to Ole Miss in Week 11.

Before matching up against No. 7 Tennessee, Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart revealed that there wasn’t much discussion behind the scenes regarding UGA’s playoff predicament. It appears to be business as usual as the Bulldogs know what’s at stake on Saturday.

“We didn’t talk about it,” Smart revealed to the ESPN College GameDay crew ahead of Week 12’s blockbuster matchup. “We didn’t have to talk about it. I think everybody understood when that came out Tuesday night. We came out and had a great practice Wednesday and we focused on that. You know, we’re not playing the College Football Playoff committee. That’s not who we’re playing against. We’re playing against Tennessee.

“We’ve got to focus on the task at hand. The rest of that will take care of itself. So we got an opportunity tonight to go out and play, and that’s what we’ve been focused on.”

All Georgia needs to do is beat Tennessee to re-insert itself firmly back into the College Football Playoff race. Given that the Vols already have a win over Alabama — one of Georgia’s two losses on the season — a win for the Bulldogs would mean that there could be an argument made when ranking the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs.

The College Football Playoff selection committee does honor common opponents. At this point in the season, having Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee all beat each other would work in the Bulldogs’ favor given the victory would come so late in the season. Not to mention that Alabama’s toughest stretch of the season is behind them, and none of their remaining games are likely to stand out to the committee thanks to the level of competition (Mercer, Oklahoma, Auburn).

That said, a loss would likely put the Bulldogs in the same boat as LSU — on the outside looking in of the College Football Playoff. Even worse for Georgia, it would be their third loss in conference play. That hasn’t happened since 2016 when they finished 4-4 in SEC action when Smart was in his first season coaching the Bulldogs.

That makes the game all the more must-win for Georgia, who head into Saturday’s game as nine-point favorites over the Volunteers at home. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET and will air live on ABC.