The SEC East showdown nobody saw coming this summer: Georgia football vs. Missouri

It would be easy way back in the summer to pick out the marquee showdown for the first Saturday in November taking place in Tuscaloosa.

Lo and behold that’s where CBS’s prime-time matchup will be for LSU-Alabama and where ESPN’s College GameDay is setting up camp.

Georgia football vs. Missouri, the other top 15 SEC matchup this weekend, doesn’t have to take a backseat to anyone.

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It’s the SEC East showdown nobody saw coming back at the league’s Media Days in Nashville in July.

Here are all the teams that Missouri was picked to finish ahead of in its division: Vanderbilt.

Here are all the teams that Missouri trails in the SEC East standings today: Georgia.

And if the CFP No. 12 Tigers can pull off the major upset against the No. 2 Bulldogs in Sanford Stadium in the 3:30 p.m. game, they will have the inside track to Atlanta for the SEC championship game.

What, is it 2013 and 2014 again when the Tigers were new kids on the block after jumping from the Big 12 and crashed the party under Gary Pinkel by winning the East in back-to-back years?

“I think the national perception was that any team that joined the SEC was going to struggle and they came in and exceeded expectations,” said Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz, who was a co-offensive coordinator in 2013 for an Arkansas State team that lost to the Tigers.

The Alabama defensive coordinator in 2014 against Missouri was Kirby Smart. The Crimson Tide smashed the Tigers 42-13.

Georgia (8-0, 5-0 SEC) has answered its biggest SEC East games so far with its best games, trouncing Kentucky 51-13 and Florida 43-20.

“Talented team, they’ve got elite coaches, they’ve got elite players,” Drinkwitz said. “They believe in their scheme. They don’t beat themselves. They play physical, they play tough.”

Missouri (7-1, 3-1) knocked off ranked Kansas State and Kentucky teams and brings the SEC’s third highest ranked passing offense to Athens at 294 yards per game featuring quarterback Brady Cook and wide receiver Luther Burden. Running back Cody Schrader, who came to the team as a walk-on from Truman State, is second in the SEC in rushing.

“They’re doing some amazing things on offense and on defense they’re creating a lot of havoc,” Georgia center Sedric Van Pran-Granger said.

Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart thinks Missouri has exceeded preseason expectations first and foremost because of its quarterback play with Cook, a fourth-year junior who has seen action against the Bulldogs each of his first three seasons including the start last season.

“You look across the league and say, man, who's playing good in the country; they got good quarterbacks,” Smart said. “And they got a good quarterback. When you got a good quarterback, you got a chance. He makes too many decisions throughout the game that if he is not making the right decision, you're not going to be in the game. And they've got a quarterback matched with great skill and a really aggressive, sound, tough defense. I mean, that's a recipe for winning.”

The Tigers have scored on every red zone trip except one — 34 of 35 — thanks in part to Harrison Mevis, a 5-foot-11, 243-pounder who has embraced his thicker kicker nickname.

Mevis booted a 61-yarder — the longest field goal in SEC history — to beat Kansas State to take the heat off Drinkwitz for a delay of game penalty that preceded it.

Against Kentucky, it was punter Luke Bauer throwing a 39-yard touchdown pass on a fake.

“I love coaching them,” Drinkwitz said. “They’ve got a great spirit about them. They have the right attitude, they have positive energy. They’re really attentive to details. They’re gritty and they’re consistent on a day-to-day basis. That’s been a lot of fun to be around.”

Georgia and Missouri aren’t in the same ballpark when it comes to the makeup of its roster. Georgia is No. 2 on the 247Sports Team Talent Composite. Missouri is No. 25.

Drinkwitz, 40, is in his fourth season and has brought in classes in full recruiting cycles ranked No. 26 in 2021, No. 15 in 2022 and No. 34 in 2023.

“He's accumulated that talent,” Smart said. “Whether through the portal or through high school, he's a talent evaluator and trying to get guys on the team to buy in. I mean, Eli does a great job.”

The current class is No. 41 — last in the SEC — but includes edge rusher Williams Nwaneri, the nation’s No. 4 overall player, from Lees Summit, Mo.

Burden was a 5-star in the 2022 class that Georgia heavily pursued.

“Luther is a great player,” Smart said. “I mean, everybody in the country wanted Luther. It wasn't just us. I mean, everybody. And they've got very fertile recruiting ground. They've got some really good players in their state.”

Missouri hasn’t finished with a winning record in the SEC the last eight seasons.

It finishes with Tennessee and Florida at home before going to Arkansas.

“We know there’s a lot of season left for us to play and just trying to take it one at a time,” Drinkwitz said.

Missouri pushed Georgia in a 26-22 Bulldogs win last season in Columbia but again faces an unbeaten team in this matchup for the third straight year.

“This year they’ve overcome a lot of challenges, they’ve replaced a lot of talent,” Drinkwitz said. “I think they’re playing at a really high level. I think Coach Smart and his staff have probably done the best job they’ve done since they’ve been there to be in the situation they’re in currently now.”

During the team’s off week, Drinkwitz did his usual slot on the SEC teleconference but mentioned multiple times he was about to get his hair cut.

After then Florida coach Dan Mullen wore a Darth Vader helmet to a press conference after beating Missouri in 2020, Drinkwitz responded a year later by pulling his hood over his head and taking out a light saber and offering: “May the force be with you.”

Said Smart: “He doesn't seem to stress and worry about things a lot. He takes it as it comes and enjoys it, and I try to do the same myself when it comes to enjoying the moment. He says it all the time, that you better enjoy it or why did you get in it? And that's what you come to this big league to play, you play in these big games like this one.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Move over LSU-Alabama. Georgia football-Missouri meet with East at stake