Kirby Smart gives breakdown of Missouri, what Tigers bring to the table

A third of the way through the 2022 regular season, Georgia has their eyes set on a road trip to Columbia this weekend and the Missouri Tigers. This Saturday’s contest between the two SEC East foes will be the Bulldogs second in-conference matchup and road game of the year. While the Bulldogs remain as the AP Poll No. 1 team in the country following a 39-22 win over Kent State, Kirby Smart has spent the entire week preparing the Bulldogs for all of the challenges that will appear this weekend for the Bulldogs.

To begin the week, Smart gave a brief overview on the 2-2 Missouri Tigers, who are coming off of a heartbreaking 17-14 loss to Auburn last week.

“Onto Missouri, a team I have a lot of respect for,” Smart said. “Any time you go on the road in the SEC, and we talk about it all the time, it’s tough to win on the road in the SEC. And a lot of respect for Eli and the job he’s done, what he does offensively and defensively. They do a good job. I’ve always thought a lot about the job he does offensively and the issues they create defensively as well. This year, they got big personnel up front. They play physical. They’ve just played a really tough game against Auburn, a tough way to lose a game, but we’re looking forward to getting ready for these guys and going on the road in the SEC.”

Smart has faced off against the Tigers in yellow and black six times, but this Saturday will only be his third time coaching against Missouri HC Eliah Drinkwitz. When asked about the threat of the Tigers’ offense, Smart had a lot of praise for Drinkwitz’s offensive scheme.

“Well, there’s a lot of misdirection,” Smart explained. “(Drinkwitz) does a good job with eye-candy and does a really nice job running the ball, being physical and running the ball. They’re always well coached on the offensive front in terms of the way they block, their plays, and the way they complement each other with shots down the field and playing vertical. I think their quarterback’s done a good job this year. He’s a good athlete, he can scramble around extend plays and make plays with his feet.”

During the Tigers’ 17-14 loss last week at Jordan-Hare Stadium, Missouri held Auburn running back Tank Bigsby to just 44 yards on 19 carries. Heading into this Saturday’s matchup, Smart is well aware of the importance of controlling the ground game.

“Yeah, they’re really physical,” Smart said. “They’re big up front. You know, they did a good job stopping the run last year versus us. Their size up front, athleticism up front, really aggressive. You know, they played Auburn really aggressive in terms of the box count they were in, some of the run stunts they run are similar to the ones we run. They’re getting after it. They’re challenging you to do something outside of that. I mean, they don’t have to have that many and they can still stop the run cause they’re physical up front. I mean, you just watch our game last year, a lot of the same people are playing on both sides. I feel like Missouri has been just massive. One of the most physical fronts that we play.”

While many Georgia fans are worried about the threat of playing a road game in the SEC, Smart is much more concerned with the timing of the kickoff, and how the Bulldogs have not gotten used to playing at that time.

“I think it being 7:30, the biggest difference for us is going to be the amount of time there is leading up to the game,” Smart explained. “We’ve had two of these ‘wake up, eat, and go play’ games and this is the reverse of that. So you gotta work off a different kind of mindset and approach to it. But home or away, you play in the SEC. You got to play really well. I think when you go on the road, you take less people, and sometimes our players aren’t around their families as much when they’re in a home game. So it’ll be important that we play well and we focus well and we concentrate well.”

During the 2022 recruiting cycle, Smart and company pushed hard in order to land a commitment from On300 five-star receiver Luther Burden. With Burden deciding on staying home and playing for the Tigers, Smart now has the challenge of game planning against the wide receiver.

“Size, elite skill set. He’s strong. He’s physical,“ Smart said about Burden. “You watch him as a returner, you know he makes people miss. They find ways to get him touches. He catches the ball out of the backfield, he has speed sweeps, he runs deep, and he returns the ball. He’s a very elusive physical runner. You can tell when people go to tackle him. He’s stout.”

Kickoff time for Saturday is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on the SEC Network. The matchup against Missouri begins a stretch of seven straight games against SEC competition up until the final week of the regular season. Georgia goes in as a 28-point favorite according to Vegas Insider with a 2-2 record against the spread this season.