Georgia maintains ranking after beating Tennessee

It wasn’t always pretty on Saturday, but the Georgia Bulldogs found a way to win their first SEC game of the season.

The 44-41 overtime victory over Tennessee did enough for Georgia to maintain its No. 3 ranking in the Coaches Poll Top 25 rankings for Week 4.

Georgia fell behind early but rallied back from a 21-7 deficit. Georgia needed a missed field goal with seven seconds remaining to get to overtime.

But once there, Georgia displayed its championship DNA. It held Tennessee to a field goal, setting up Josh McCray for the game-winning touchdown run.

“I’m really proud of our guys,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “We talked about coming in here and conquering this place, which is not easy to do. And when you do something like that, you have to make your own way. You have to absorb blows. I don’t think I had any idea how many blows we would have to absorb, but we did, and we got a resilient group. I think that’s a really good football team we just played.”

Even with the loss, Tennessee remained at No. 15 in the poll. Georgia is still the top-ranked SEC team in the poll, sitting just ahead of LSU at No. 4.

Georgia will have another ranked game on its schedule the next time it takes the field, as the Bulldogs host Alabama on Sept. 27. The Crimson Tide are the No. 14 team after it beat Wisconsin this week.

Georgia and Alabama are both off this coming weekend. Given how the game against Tennessee unfolded, Georgia knows it has a lot to correct.

“We’ve got to play smarter,” Smart said. “But, look, that’s a hard game to prep for. We worked the hell out of our guys to get ready for that game. We probably overworked those guys. It came down to things that we didn’t not execute. We got beaten over top or didn’t make a play. It was frustrating because I thought we would play better defensively.”

You can see the full Coaches Poll top 25 rankings for Week 4 below.

Coaches Poll top 25 rankings for Week 4

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