Did Georgia football hold out key offensive players for Alabama in SEC championship game?

Georgia football defensive back Tykee Smith was on one side of the Governor’s Cup Trophy in the Bobby Dodd Stadium locker room.

The actual Governor, Brian Kemp, was on the other with Kirby Smart to his right, according to a photo posted on social media by the team. The coach put his arm around wide receiver Ladd McConkey.

The Bulldogs will take pride in keeping that hardware after a 31-23 win even if it came with plenty to work on ahead of what’s next — an SEC championship showdown with Alabama.

Georgia was a 24½ point favorite.

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“Ain’t nothing to celebrate about for real,” safety Javon Bullard said. “I feel like we didn’t really play to our standard. That’s what it is."

Said quarterback Carson Beck: “Obviously it didn’t look exactly the way we wanted it to today, but to come out of here with a win is big.”

Here are three questions ahead of Saturday’s SEC championship game against Alabama:

Did Georgia football hold out key offensive players ahead of playing Alabama in the SEC championship game?

Well, I asked Smart after the game how close tight end Brock Bowers, McConkey and offensive guard Tate Ratledge were to playing. I didn’t mention wide receiver Rara Thomas but he could have been included as well.

All were dealing with injuries.

“Define close,” Smart said.

If it was a championship game, could you have played them?

“If they could play, they would have played, 100 percent,” Smart said. “If they could have played, they would have played. I don’t think you measure it, it was a championship game. It was a state championship game. They wanted to play, all of them wanted to play. But guys, we’re beat up.”

Georgia is without inside linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson with a broken forearm.

“We’ve got two freshman linebackers out there playing, I don’t know, 50 percent of the snaps,” Smart said. “Smael (Mondon’s) out there fighting his tail off, he’s hurt and beat up. Everybody does, we’re not going to whine and cry about it. We’ve just got to get the next man up and got to continue to make plays with the other guys.”

McConkey is dealing with an ankle injury. Thomas has a foot injury. Ratledge sustained a minor knee injury last week.

Bowers’ surgically repaired ankle “was more sore this week than he’s been,” Smart said. “He was not able to do much during the week. He tried to go, he wanted to go, but it just, I mean, he’s sore. He’s got to be honest with us and tell us."

Should Georgia fans be worried about stopping Alabama’s Jalen Milroe after what Haynes King and Georgia Tech did?

Yep.

King’s total rushing numbers don’t jump off the page —24 yards on 10 carries — but he scored both of Georgia Tech’s touchdowns on 9 and 5 yard runs.

Georgia Tech became the second team to rush for more than 200 yards against Georgia this year after Auburn. The Yellow Jackets had 205 on 44 carries.

“We’re in crunch time, championship week, playoff mode,” Bullard said. “If we give up 200 yards rushing to Bama, it’s not going to end pretty."

Smart credited former Georgia Tech offensive coordinator, Buster Faulkner and his staff for doing a great job with their run plan, particularly with the quarterback run.

“We looked like we misfit some things,” Smart said. “I don't know. I got to go back and watch it. They might have just whipped us.”

Smart also put a positive spin on it.

“Once again our kids show up very resilient, tough,” he said. “I mean, this game is not measured by stats and rushing yards and first downs — it's measured by heart, and you've got to have a whole lot of heart to go out there and fight and play like our guys have done week after week after week.”

Milroe by the way has rushed for 439 yards this season and 12 touchdowns.

Who was the last Georgia player to rush for 150 yards in game before Kendall Milton Saturday?

That would be D'Andre Swift in 2019 when he had 179 against Kentucky.

Milton is closing out his Georgia career playing his best football.

The senior has led the team in rushing the last three games and for the second time in three games, set a career rushing high.

This time it was 156 rushing yards and a career-high 18 carries with two touchdowns,

“I think he’s been playing out of his mind lately,” center Sedrick Van-Pran Granger said.

Milton has 10 rushing touchdowns on the season, one shy of Daijun Edwards’ team-leading 11.

"He breaks a lot of arm tackles,” Smart said of Milton. “You know, I saw two or three of their guys have to go out from having to tackle him 'cause he's really physical and downhill. But make no mistake about it: it's not just him. It's a lot of them dudes up there in front of him. It's quarterback run-checking, front O-line moving people, tight ends and receivers blocking downfield. It's a team effort, and he was a big, big part of that tonight.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Did UGA football hold out injured players so they'd be ready for Bama?