ATHENS, Ga. -- The Bulldogs believe they're back.
While fans are beginning to get excited at the thought of the SEC East truly being Georgia's to lose and making comparisons between this season and 2012, the players equally believe they made a statement in their 31-3 victory over Mississippi State on Saturday at Sanford Stadium.
"I wouldn’t say we came out here to make a statement, we just played Georgia ball, and that’s what we did here tonight," receiver Terry Godwin told 11Alive after the game.
But when asked if Saturday's performance sent out a statement to the rest of the SEC: "Yes, sir. We came out and showed that Georgia’s back."
Godwin was all smiles after Georgia's win. He helped Georgia punch Mississippi State in the mouth early by catching a 59-yard touchdown pass from true freshman quarterback Jake Fromm on a flea flicker on the offense's first play.
Nick Chubb also had a pair of touchdowns, one of which was out of the "wild dog" formation, and interceptions by the defense in the second half helped Georgia score 10 more points to dominate a team many were high on after they blew out LSU last week. Tight end Isaac Nauta had a 41-yard touchdown reception.
Fromm threw for 201 yards and two touchdowns.
"Last year, we kind of put up a piss poor performance against the SEC West. I think we really came out here and made a statement that we’re a team to be reckoned with," defensive back Davin Bellamy said. "We’re kind of not worried about anyone else."
The defense held quarterback Nick Fitzgerald to 47 yards on the ground and 83 in the air. With the second team defense in, Mississippi State was able to get down to the 1-yard line with a few seconds left, but Georgia made a stop at the goal line to keep the Bulldogs out of the end zone for the entire game.
"This is a fast defense. Very fast. Fastest one I’ve ever been a part of. It’s tearing across that field," Bellamy said. "One thing I know about this defense, it has a lot of confidence, and if this defense is playing with the lead, we’re playing faster and we’re playing more confident. Those quick seven really helped us because their back was against the wall. That’s when we attack."
Nearly all the players believe the Dawgs made a statement. And while Kirby Smart was pleased with the aggressive play-calling by offensive coordinator Jim Chaney that led to a quick 7 for Georgia, he's trying to slow down the hype train.
"I know every one of you wants to write how great this was and how good this was. We still got drop balls, we still got missed blocks, we got miss tackles, we still got a lot of room for improvement, and we’ve got a team that’s got to go on the road next week just like Mississippi State had to this week after a big win," Smart said.
Georgia goes on the road to play Tennessee next Saturday. It's Georgia's second of eight consecutive SEC games. It will be their first game against a division opponent.
While Smart doesn't want his players to read all the great stuff that's being written about them, he's confident he can keep them grounded. That's thanks in large part to working under Alabama head coach Nick Saban for so long.
"You don’t temper that. You just do a good job managing your team. If you’ve got a mature team, they handle things like that well. It does concern me because I worry about those guys reading and believing it," Smart said.
