Georgia finding motivation in poor SEC Championship Game track record

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia Football got to the top of the metaphorical mountain last year in College Football, taking home the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship. Winning one of those makes you the envy of everybody else in the sport. They aren’t easy to come by. The same could be said about SEC championships too, and that is something that the Bulldogs weren’t able to accomplish last season. In fact, Kirby Smart-led teams have had the exact same success winning SEC championships as they have national championships, bringing home one of each in Smart’s previous six seasons on the job. They’re trying to change that on Saturday.

“It definitely means a lot to me,” Georgia senior safety Christopher Smith said when asked what it would mean to add a number on the wall of SEC championship-winning teams in the football facility. “It’s definitely one our team goals to be able to win the SEC. I’ve played in this game three times and haven’t been able to win so hopefully fourth times a charm. We are going to put in the work and execute the game plan as best as possible to be out there and go out there and get a win.”

“That is very important,” fourth-year junior offensive lineman Warren McClendon added. “We won a national championship. We won the East, but I haven’t won an SEC Championship yet. It is very important to me. It is very important for this team.”

Smith and McClendon aren’t the only two that feel that way. After all, it’s been since 2017 that Georgia was able to bring home an SEC championship. Quarterback Stetson Bennett and outside linebacker Robert Beal were on the team then, but other than those two, nobody has an SEC championship ring. Having been in position to win one in 2018, 2019 and 2021, the players understand that this game and what comes with winning it is far from a given at Georgia.

“Since I’ve been here, we won the national championship, but one of our goals every year is to win the SEC Championship so that’s a big goal for us and it would be a huge accomplishment,” wide receiver Ladd McConkey said. “SEC Championships are hard to come by. I haven’t won one since I’ve been here. A lot of guys have been in it before but haven’t won it. We know how much of a challenge it is to get to this point and how much of a challenge it is going to be for the rest of the year. We just want to go out and take it one game at a time and put our best foot forward and do what we need to do to get the win.”

Georgia coach Kirby Smart is also well aware of how hard it is to win the SEC championship. As he pointed out this week, he’s got also as many national championship rings (5) as he does SEC championship rings (6). It’s not any easier to win one than it is the other, and he doesn’t take the opportunity for granted.

“It’s more about checking a box. It’s not about last year’s team or a comparison. It’s about that next step and having an opportunity to put a number on the wall that stays there forever,” Smart said when asked if there’s any added motivation for this year’s team in the fact that they were able to accomplish so much last season but came up short of winning an SEC championship. “It’s an SEC Championship. You don’t belittle those. Those are hard to come by. They’re what you do what you do for. There’s such a respect, especially in this part of the country, for the Southeastern Conference, that winning a Southeastern Conference championship is extremely impressive for the quality of football and the number of NFL players that come out of our conference. I think our players take a lot of pride in that.”

Georgia and LSU kickoff the 2022 SEC Championship Game from Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. ET on CBS. It’s the fifth meeting between the Bulldogs and Tigers with the conference title on the line. LSU holds a 3-1 advantage in the previous four matchups including a dominant 37-10 win in 2019 on their way to an undefeated season and a National Championship Game victory.