Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart is not taking the obvious advantage they have in College Football Playoff this season for granted.
When the Bulldogs enter the Caesars Superdome on New Year's, all eyes will be on them as the heavy favorites against Ole Miss. One factor making the Vegas oddsmakers believe in Georgia more is their 43-35 win over the same squad in the regular season, just against a different head coach.
Kirby Smart on importance of SEC rematches in CFP
Smart asserted how rematches bring along the undeniable advantage of fairly knowing the best and the worst of their opponents.
"Yeah, I'm excited as well because you get an opportunity to play -- you don't worry about the motivation when you're playing another SEC opponent," Smart said in his final press conference before the Sugar Bowl on Wednesday.
"Your team respects those teams, and it's already happened once in the playoffs last week. It's a statement to the conference. And you get an opportunity to go play somebody that maybe you know something more about. You certainly have a lot more common opponents when you play within the league in the playoffs."
Georgia got that advantage when they played Alabama in the first round, one that they fairly weaponized to get their regular-season revenge against the Crimson Tide.
The same advantage they also have against Ole Miss. Seeing what Chambliss is capable of on gridiron in-person must have given Smart a better perspective on orchetrarting his Sugar Bowl strategy.
Everything else is mostly the same, expect it is now Pete Golding calling the shots as the head coach.
That, plus Ole Miss is also coming in after winning a rematch against Tulane, not an SEC rematch, but a rematch nevertheless.
We'll see who uses the information the best to get the upper hand this New Year's.