The matchup has been set for a week, but with Georgia Tech out of the way, Georgia can officially turn its attention to Alabama. The No. 1 Bulldogs (12-0) will face No. 3 Alabama in next week’s SEC Championship Game.

After capping off an undefeated regular season, UGA coach Kirby Smart was asked about the team turning its attention to Bama.

“Yeah, I think we embrace it,” Smart said in his postgame press conference. “We get the Governor’s Trophy, which is a great honor. Our expectation was to come in here and win this game. And that’s the enjoyment, is enjoying the game, and the second half, and seeing the other guys playing. So it makes it easier to transition where it’s not so emotional. You’re not invested emotionally when the game is kind of finished and over in the fourth quarter. So that probably helped in terms of not wasting emotion.

“But we know it’s a big one coming up. Everyone’s kind of hard it circled and seen it out there. We’ve really tried to work hard on getting better. That’s been the emphasis, is what can we improve on. The last two weeks we’ve been trying to be ascending. We’ve tried to get some guys back healthy. And that’s going to be the focus this week, is nobody trying to do more than they should. We just need to be at our best and we need to play one of our best football teams. They’ve got a really talented, talented football team.”

While Georgia fans are thinking about playing in the National Championship, Smart spoke of why the SEC Championship Game is a special event.

“The SEC Championship is one of the greatest environments in all of college sports,” Smart told media members. “Like all of college sports. Compares with the Final Four, compares with the College World Series. It’s one of the greatest events. You go back to one of the Bama-Georgia games, you got one of the most viewed games in the whole season, even over the national championship. What commissioner Sankey and leadership has created is value on a game when a lot of championship games don’t have the same value. And the stage and the television audience and the national audience you get, it’s tremendous for our school, for recruiting, for everything. It’s one of the greatest events in a great location. Where football is king, all across the south.”

[H/T Dawgs247]