One of Georgia coach Kirby Smart’s comments following the win at Auburn included his locker room reaction where he said, “How about those f——- Dawgs!” But it was a different reaction at home and Smart began the week ahead of the Texas A&M game apologizing for that language.

“I would like to apologize for something I said after the game Saturday night,” Smart said at his regular press conference on Monday. “That’s not indicative of who I want to be and what I stand for. You know you messed up when you get home to your wife and she’s more upset than you won the game, she’s more upset with something you said. It’s not what I represent. It’s not the kind of behavior I want to have. I want to say to the Dawg fans out there and everybody, I’m going to try to handle that a lot better. It was an emotional win and I was very emotional in that, got to do a better job of that.”

The original quote, below, came after he was asked about clinching the SEC East for the third straight season.

“I don’t even think I said anything about it. I gave credit to Auburn and told our guys to handle it the right way. I told them, ‘How ‘bout them f—— Dogs’ – that’s what I told them, excuse my language. I didn’t say anything about the SEC East because that wasn’t the goal coming in here. The goal for us was to continue to get better, grow, play in a tough environment. But it wasn’t really about the SEC East and that’s a hell of an accomplishment.”

Thanks to a late stand by its defense, Georgia will make it to Atlanta for the third straight season, the first team to go to three straight SEC Championship Games from the East since Steve Spurrier’s Florida Gators in the mid-90s.

Georgia next plays Texas A&M in Athens and then at Georgia Tech before the trip to the SEC Championship Game.