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Kirby Smart shades Greg Sankey over Georgia’s schedule during SEC Championship trophy ceremony
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Kirby Smart and Georgia celebrated an SEC Championship on Saturday with a 22-19 overtime win over Texas, but the Bulldogs head coach jabbed conference commissioner Greg Sankey over the team’s road schedule in 2024.
The Bulldogs faced Tennessee Tech, Auburn, Mississippi State, Florida, Tennessee, UMass, and Georgia Tech at Sanford Stadium. But their away schedule was much more difficult: they slipped past Kentucky in Lexington and came just short of a comeback win at Alabama before holding on to a late lead at Texas and falling at Ole Miss. Their other regular-season game away from Athens was the season opener, a win over Clemson at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Smart, during the championship trophy presentation, seemed to throw some shade toward Sankey when asked by ESPN’s Laura Rutledge what it meant for the Bulldogs to get a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff as one of the 12-team field’s four highest-ranked conference champions.
“It means rest for a team that Greg Sankey and his staff sent on the road all year long,” he replied. “We get to take a little bit of a break and get ready for the College Football Playoff. This team needs some rest mentally, needs a little time off.”
Indeed, the Dawgs won’t play again until New Year’s Day, giving them a three-and-a-half week break as opposed to the two-week break they’d have gotten as an at-large team. Either way, Sankey likely won’t take kindly to Smart’s schedule remarks.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
