Georgia looks to face its toughest test of the season to date Saturday as a red-hot Mississippi State team is coming to town after destroying LSU by a score of 37-7 last weekend.

The contest will be Georgia’s first conference game of the season before the team hits the road for Tennessee and Vanderbilt in back-to-back weeks. If UGA has legitmate aspirations of winning the SEC East, and they should, winning this game will be paramount to that success.

Coach Kirby Smart was the first coach to speak during this week’s SEC Coaches Teleconference. Here’s a summary of what was said during the call:

  • How do you prepare a freshman QB to play? We want them to be confident, they have to understand they can throw the ball away. Continuing to encourage him to make good decisions.
  • On playing vs Nick Fitzgerald: It’s tough to defend a guy as big as Nick and as physical and fast as Nick. He presents a lot of challenges to defenses. You want to punish the guy with the ball, regardless of who it is. But you have to wrap him up and tackle him, too. It’s not just about where you hit him and how hard, you have to get him on the ground.
  • On Notre Dame win, how will that serve you in SEC play? It was similar to an SEC game. They were big and physical like an SEC team. Sometimes you learn more from losing than you do winning so we have to learn lessons without losing. Hopefully, we did that in that game.
  • On MSU’s third-down offense: They do a great job, mixing up run and pass. Dan (Mullen) does a great job with that.
  • On MSU’s RB Aeris Williams: Really good back, reminds me of Le’veon Bell. When Dan has had a really good QB and RB, it’s a great compliment.