The 2024 SEC Championship game on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta will be a rematch between Georgia and Texas.
Earlier this season, the Bulldogs defeated the Longhorns 30-15 in a top-10 matchup, and this week, both are again ranked in the top 10 of the College Football Playoff poll.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said his team is looking forward to playing in the conference championship game.
“Our guys are excited to return to Atlanta in one of the most iconic games there is of championship games,” Smart said. “I think when you look over the history of this game, it has a great tradition and atmosphere. Having coached in it for a lot of years between Alabama and Georgia, I know it’s absolutely an incredible atmosphere.
"It’s two teams battling for a conference championship, which has eluded many teams in this conference. With the new teams at our conference, the strength of this thing is incredible. To look at an opportunity to play for the championship of this conference is really a special moment.”
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian agreed and said he’s proud of his team’s performance during its first year in the SEC.
“First of all, this is a heck of an honor to earn an opportunity to go to Atlanta and compete for an SEC Championship. It was something that was clearly one of our team goals before the season began,” Sarkisian said. “We knew it would be extremely challenging. Anytime you can make it to an SEC Championship game, you are able to survive to some degree the treachery that this conference has. We see it year in, year out.”
Texas (11-1, 7-1) opened as a 2.5-point favorite over Georgia (10-2, 6-2). Both are expected to make the playoffs.
Sarkisian, who is in his fourth year as head coach of the Longhorns, hopes for a better result in Atlanta this week.
“I think the key for us is to get recentered, refocused on one game,” he said. “That’s what we’ve been doing here probably over the last month or so, is not getting caught up in what’s down the road but what do we need to do this week to play our best football, whether that’s physical, whether that’s mental, whether that’s emotional.”
The key difference in the last matchup was Georgia’s defense, which forced four turnovers and had seven sacks.
However, the Bulldogs struggled offensively as quarterback Carson Beck threw three interceptions. The second-year starter struggled in the next four contests but flipped the script in the regular season’s final three games.
Smart thinks Beck has become more consistent in the last few weeks.
“Carson’s very consistent in his thought process, makeup, and process,” he said. “You have to judge whether he’s consistent on the field because I think he has been. I think people judge it on stats. They don’t judge it on what we see. The day-in, day-out process-oriented of what he’s going through and what he’s doing for the offense has been very consistent.”
Georgia and Texas will play at 4 p.m. Saturday, and the game will be televised on ABC.