Mr. CFB: Will The Third Time Be The Charm For Georgia at MBS?
Technically, it will not be a true home-field advantage on Saturday when No. 1 Georgia plays No. 4 Ohio State in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff at the palatial Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
But brothers and sisters, it sure is close.
Georgia’s campus in Athens is only 75 miles away from MBS. The largest concentration of University of Georgia alumni in the country-- around 100,000-- live in Metro Atlanta.
And if all those Bulldawg alums can get tickets to MBS, history tells us that they certainly know how to get there.
MBS, which replaced the Georgia Dome (1992-2016) was opened for business for the 2017 season and Georgia wasted no time in making it the Bulldogs’ home away from home. In that season Georgia beat Auburn 28-7 in the SEC championship game to advance to the CFP.
Then, as fate would have it, Georgia would beat USC in the semifinals at the Rose Bowl. The Bulldogs won 54-48 in overtime in a classic game. With that victory Georgia earned a spot in the national championship game—at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The opponent was Alabama, which had earned a spot in the playoffs despite not winning the SEC championship or its own division. Alabama won 26-23 on a walk-off touchdown pass by Tua Tagovailoa in overtime.
After the heartbreaking loss Georgia Coach Kirby Smart said this:
“This is not the end of anything,” he said. “This is just the beginning. We will be back.”
He was right. All total Georgia has played at MBS eight times with a record of 4-4.
A brief rundown:
2017--SEC championship game: Georgia 28, Auburn 7.
2017—CFP championship game: Alabama 26, Georgia 23 (OT)
2018—SEC championship game: Alabama 35, Georgia 28
2019—SEC championship game: LSU 37, Georgia 10
2020—Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: Georgia 24, Cincinnati 21
2021—SEC championship game: Alabama 41, Georgia 24
2022—Chick-fil-A Kickoff: Georgia 49, Oregon 3
2022—SEC championship game: Georgia 50, LSU 30
So 2022 acctually marked the second time that the Bulldogs had played twice in a season at MBS. They opened the season with a convincing 49-3 over Oregon in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game on Sept. 3. Then the Bulldogs returned on Dec. 3 to beat LSU 50-30 in the SEC championship game.
Now Georgia will play in MBS for the THIRD time this season. And should it be the charm, there is nothing less on the line than a spot in the CFP national championship game on Jan. 9, at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
“We always treat Atlanta like it’s our backyard, like we’re just down the road in Sanford (Georgia’s Sanford Stadium),” defensive lineman Zion Louge told Dawgs HQ earlier this season. “We do treat it like a home-field advantage (after) playing Oregon earlier this year and how many other countless times we played there.”
Georgia Coach Kirby Smart certainly likes playing in Atlanta. As a long-time assistant at Alabama and in seven years as Georgia’s head coach, he’s had a lot of success in the ATL. In fact, his first game as Georgia’s head coach in 2016 was against North Carolina in the final year of the Georgia Dome.
Still, Smart is always conscious not to put too much stock in things that can’t be fully measured—like the venue. Remember that his Bulldogs traveled all the way across the country in 2017 to play and beat Oklahoma in the national semifinals in the Rose Bowl.
Last season Georgia traveled to the Orange Bowl and beat Michigan in the semifinals.
It’s one thing, he said, to fly to the venue on the day before the game. But for this game both teams arrive in Atlanta on Monday, Dec. 26 to begin preparations for Saturday’s game.
“We’ll practice at Mercedes-Benz. They’ll (Ohio State) practice at Mercedes-Benz,” Smart told UGASports.com. “It’s not like you’re going to walk in there and not have seen the place.”
But the fact is that Georgia will be making its third appearance in fourth months at MBS. And before this season started, playing in the CFP national semifinals in this building is exactly where the Georgia Bulldogs wanted—and expected—to be.
It may not be the classic home-field advantage but it IS an advantage. There is no doubt about that.