Ole Miss v Georgia
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After the first round of the College Football Playoff featured two rematches of regular season meetings we have another in the quarterfinals, as No. 3 seed Georgia will square off with No. 6 seed Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl. The Rebels solidified their spot in New Orleans with a 41-10 win over Tulane on Saturday, logging what was not just the first-ever CFP win for the program but also a 1-0 start to the Pete Golding era in Oxford. 

Georgia won the first meeting 43-35, roaring back from a pair of second-half deficits and scoring the final 17 points of the game. Gunner Stockton was outstanding, throwing for four touchdowns and no interceptions while guiding the Bulldogs to 510 total yards of offense. Now we will see what has changed in the matchup since that Oct. 18 meeting in Athens, as both teams will have plenty of time to get ready for familiar opponents. 

For Kirby Smart's Bulldogs the Sugar Bowl also provides a chance to get the win that eluded them in last season's CFP opener. The Bulldogs had the No. 2 seed in last year's bracket as the SEC champions, but were knocked off by Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl quarterfinal. Now they'll be in the same position, facing a team coming off an on-campus first-round win, but hoping to get a different result and make an appearance in the CFP semifinals for the first time since 2022-23.  

Of course for Ole Miss the opportunity is more school history. The Rebels' 12 wins in 2025 is already the most all-time, and after getting the programs first-ever CFP win in its first-ever CFP appearance, every additional victory extends the accolades for this group. It will also be another big early challenge for new head coach Pete Golding, who with one more win could change the conversation about the ceiling for Ole Miss in this playoff. 

Now with the matchup set and the stakes established, let's get into what you need to know about the two teams in the Sugar Bowl quarterfinal.   

What to know about Georgia 

Georgia captured its third SEC Championship in the last four seasons on a back of a team that got better throughout the year, bouncing back from an early season loss to Alabama and winning nine straight games to enter the College Football Playoff with a 12-1 record. A win against the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship Game gave Kirby Smart's crew the honor of saying that it had "beat every team on its schedule" this season, and now he takes aim at the pursuit of a third national championship ring. 

Georgia had the 14th-best point margin in the country this season (+16.0 points per game) but the style of wins evolved throughout the season and depending on opponent. The Bulldogs won shootouts against the likes of Tennessee and Ole Miss but also got big defensive performances in late-season wins against Texas, Georgia Tech and Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. Gunner Stockton has been a steady hand in his first full season as starting quarterback, throwing for 23 touchdowns and just five interceptions while carrying the SEC's second-best completion percentage at 70.7%. But a big story has also been the running back room, led by sophomore Nate Frazier who with 861 yards on the season already has the second-most productive rushing year for a Georgia back since 2020. The Bulldogs haven't had a 1,000-yard back since D'Andre Swift in 2019, but if the team's CFP stay extends beyond the Sugar Bowl that would certainly be in the cards for Frazier. 

Ultimately the story of Georgia's season has been its resiliency. The Bulldogs trailed in six of their seven wins during the regular season against SEC opponents, with multiple second-half comebacks that include the eight-point win against Ole Miss back in October. The school's own game notes boast about how the team is "hard to kill" and Kirby Smart takes great pride in the fact that his team has frequently found ways to win, even when it isn't pretty. That could be a key factor in securing a win against a familiar foe, because it's well known that it can be difficult to beat a team twice in one season.  

What to know about Ole Miss 

The story of Ole Miss in 2025 will always have Lane Kiffin as the main character, but at this point the former Rebels (and current LSU) coach is going to fade in the backdrop to make room for Pete Golding and a team that's buzzing of its first-ever College Football Playoff win. The 41-10 rout of Tulane served as a celebratory and cathartic moment for all of Oxford, Mississippi, as Rebles fans packed Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and and were treated to a wire-to-wire win that cemented this group as an all-time Ole Miss team. Those same fans shouldn't have trouble making the short trip south to New Orleans, where the hopes of keeping this run going will create a lively atmosphere inside of the Superdome. 

Even though Lane Kiffin is off to LSU, Ole Miss and its transition offensive staff (led by Charlie Weis Jr.) still put together a game plan that allowed the Rebels to be successful against Tulane. Ole Miss entered the game averaging 37.3 points per game on the year and scored 41, which compared to the 45-10 win against Tulane earlier in the year suggests we should not expect that much of a drop-off in the midst of this coaching transition. 

The rematch aspect of this should also be a key factor for Ole Miss and its defense, which new head coach Pete Golding certainly has had a big hand in throughout the year and will continue to in the Sugar Bowl. Georgia was one of just two Ole Miss opponents to total more than 500 yards and score more than 30 points against this Rebels defense, and the inability to get stops late in the game proved to be the deciding factor in letting a fourth quarter lead slip away. Ole Miss' defense was dominant against Tulane in the first-round win, but the jump up in weight class will be significant against the SEC champions. 

The win against Tulane did include injury scares for quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and star running back and 1,200-yard rusher Kewan Lacy, but both players did end up returning to action in the game. Those developments will be key to monitor for an Ole Miss offense that ranked No. 2 nationally in yards per game coming into the College Football Playoff and will be facing a Georgia defense that has improved since their first meeting. 

Odds below via FanDuel Sportsbook.

Sugar Bowl odds, prediction 

There is an aspect of "been there, done that" to consider when looking at the rematch between these two teams. Georgia's senior class has a 51-5 record that includes a national title (2022) and three SEC championships (2022, 2024, 2025). Though the roster is littered with underclassmen as starters and contributors, the standard for excellence has been set and it seems unlikely that they will stand for another one-and-done showing in the College Football Playoff. Ultimately this is a team that's gotten better since an eight-point win in mid-October, and that should show up in a comfortable win in the rematch. Pick: Georgia -6.5