AP Poll: Georgia rises to eighth in nation after win over Tennessee
Georgia is on the rise after a win over Tennessee, and it’s got the Bulldogs back into the top 10 of the latest AP Poll. After coming in at No. 11 last week, UGA is ranked eighth by the voters entering Week 13 of the College Football season, leapfrogging over Ole Miss in the process.
The top 5 of the poll remains unchanged. Oregon received all 62 votes for first place despite a close win over Wisconsin with the Ducks being followed behind by Ohio State, Texas, Penn State and Indiana. Tennessee previously ranked sixth while BYU was No. 7, both falling as a result of their respective losses. The Vols now come in at No. 10 while the Cougars are all the way at No. 14.
Notre Dame (No. 6), Alabama (No. 7), Ole Miss (No. 9) round out the rest of the top 10 while Miami (No. 11), Boise State (No. 12), SMU (No. 13) and Texas A&M (No. 15) finish the top 15. Coming in at No. 17 is Clemson, who Georgia beat in the season opener. It’s one of three wins over a ranked opponent this season for the Bulldogs.
UGA VS. AP TOP 25
August 31 – Clemson (34-3 W)
September 28 – Alabama (41-34 L)
October 19 – Texas (30-15 W)
November 9 – Ole Miss (28-10 L)
November 16 – Tennessee (31-17 W)
Of course where Georgia is at in the AP Poll – as well as the Coaches Poll where UGA also ranks eighth – doesn’t matter much anymore with the College Football Playoff rankings release each Tuesday night. Last week the Bulldogs came in at No. 12 but would’ve been on the outside looking in at the field of 12 with automatic bids going to the top five conference champions including one from the Group of Five. Kirby Smart’s squad can expect to make a leap in the right direction. The question becomes, how high?
Top 10
- 1
AP Poll Shakeup
New Top 25 shows big fallout from Saturday
- 2Breaking
JuJu Lewis
Elite QB decommits from USC
- 3New
5-star QB flip
Texas A&M commit Husan Longstreet flips to USC
- 4
Coaches Poll
Big changes to updated Top 25
- 5
Head coach fired
Temple to fire Stan Drayton
“Our kids showed resiliency, I’m proud of them,” Smart said in his opening statement of the postgame press conference. “Look, a week ago and a couple hours, we were dead and gone. People written us off. It’s just, it’s hard to play this league week in and week out on the road. We’ve accumulated a tremendous amount of injuries from the schedule we’ve had. And it’s not really going to get any easier. It’s a physical game. But when you play the gauntlet of what we played, it’s taken its toll. We had a lot of guys sitting on the sideline tonight that couldn’t play. But we also had a lot of guys that stepped up. And I think the way we practice has helped us grow some players who stepped up tonight and played big for us.”
“Like I said after the game, I don’t know what they’re looking for. I really don’t,” he added later on when asked about the College Football Playoffs. “I wish they could really define the criteria. I wish they could do the eyeball test where they come down here and look at the people we’re playing against and look at them. And you can’t see that stuff on TV. So I don’t know what they look for, but that’s for somebody else to decide. I’m worried about our team.”
Georgia has two games remaining in the regular season, both coming against non-conference opponents and both at home. The Bulldogs host UMass this coming weekend at 12:45 p.m. ET (SEC Network) before a shorter than normal turnaround to take on in-state rival Georgia Tech on Black Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
