NEW ORLEANS (AP) — For the Georgia Bulldogs and coach Kirby Smart, last year's Sugar Bowl brought a heavy dose of sadness that had more to do with life — and the loss of it — than football.
As fate would have it, the third-ranked Bulldogs (12-1, No. 3 seed CFP) are back one year later to take on No. 6 Mississippi (12-1, No. 6 seed CFP) in the quarterfinal round of the College Football Playoff on Thursday night.
When Georgia's team plane touched down at Louis Armstrong International Airport this week, it “brought back some memories,” Smart said. “It was a different mood, a different time. A very different frame of mind."
In the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2025, Georgia players and coaches were in a hotel just a few blocks up Canal Street from where an attacker turned right onto Bourbon Street and plowed his truck into pedestrians — killing 14 — before dying in a shootout with police.
After that day's Sugar Bowl was delayed by a day, Georgia lost to Notre Dame. Then Smart’s father, Sonny, who’d injured his hip in a fall on New Year’s Eve, died in a New Orleans-area hospital from complications during surgery.
“You can’t help but think a little bit about the last time I was here, what I was going through,” Smart said.
“It was a terrible time in this city," Smart continued. "It was a horrific deal. It changed everything in this city and really the celebration of New Year’s."
Still, Smart sounded gratified by his opportunity to be part of another big game in the Big Easy.
“We owe it to all those guys over there in sweat suits to be focused on the task at hand,” Smart said, gazing across a hotel ball room to where many of his players had gathered for media interviews. “Our guys are excited to be back.”
For Ole Miss, the game is a chance to redeem its only loss this season — a 43-35 setback at Georgia on Oct. 18. It's also a chance for the Rebels to demonstrate how capable they can be without Lane Kiffin, who coached them the whole regular season before leaving for LSU on Nov. 30.
Kiffin was replaced by Pete Golding, a feisty defensive coordinator who made his head-coaching debut in a 41-10 rout of Tulane in the CFP's first round.
Golding also happens to be from Hammond, Louisiana, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans.
“It’s awesome coming back home,” Golding said. “It’s a great city to host, great city to play football in, and a great city to eat in as well.”
The winner will move on to the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 8 for a CFP semifinal against the winner of the Cotton Bowl between No. 2 seed Ohio State and 10th-seeded Miami.
Second bite
The first meeting between these teams in October was a thriller in which Ole Miss led in the fourth quarter before Georgia scored 17 unanswered points.
While Smart was proud of the resilience the Bulldogs showed in that game, he downplayed the significance of the previous meeting.
“It’s way more about living in the moment,” Smart asserted. “There’s nothing about our last game against Ole Miss that’s going to help us in this game.”
One significant difference is that Kiffin won't be on the Ole Miss sideline. But Golding suggested that how his defense plays will be a bigger factor; Georgia never punted in the previous meeting.
There were “double-digit missed tackles,” and “busts on critical downs,” in the last meeting, Golding said. “That’s been the big message to our players. You’re in the playoffs. You’ve got to play your best.”
Keep dreaming
The game features a pair of quarterbacks who emerged from humble beginnings and became dynamic, resourceful playmakers who are poised in the clutch.
Mississippi's Trinidad Chambliss is a transfer from Division II Ferris State. He began the season as a backup, but kept the starting job for good after first coming in as an injury replacement. The dual-threat QB has passed for 3,298 yards and 19 TDs to go with 506 yards and eight TDs rushing.
“It’s really cool to see where I am right now,” Chambliss said, noting that he considered giving up football and playing small-college basketball instead.
When asked if he could have envisioned his success at Ole Miss, he responded, “If you would have told me that before the season, I would have just laughed at you.”
Gunner Stockton, who grew up in rural Georgia, arrived at Athens with little promise of playing time.
Toughness and work ethic helped him become a backup last season. An injury to then-starter Carson Beck thrust Stockton into last season's SEC title game and he helped lead Georgia to a comeback win over Texas before getting his first college start in last season's Sugar Bowl.
Beck later transferred to Miami and Stockton kept his starting role in 2025, passing for 2,691 yards and 23 TDs while also rushing for 442 yards and eight TDs.
“It’s crazy how much I’ve grown in a year,” Stockton said. “I feel more comfortable and more confident.”
Near-sighted
Ole Miss became a poster child for college football's new paradigm — and what's wrong with it — when Kiffin had to decide whether to leave the Rebels for LSU two days after the regular season.
Since then, several of Kiffin's top offensive assistants — including offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. — have committed to join him in Baton Rouge in 2026, but have been permitted to remain with Mississippi until the postseason ends.
Goldings said working with those short-timers hasn't been as much of an issue as one might suspect.
“I felt pretty comfortable throughout the entire process, regardless of whether they were going to be coaching somewhere else next year or at Ole Miss, they were going to finish what they started for our players,” Golding said. “We have a good relationship with them on a personal level anyway, so there’s a respect factor.”
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