Georgia locks in New Year’s Six bowl game. Bulldogs won’t have to travel far

Georgia officially knows where it will go bowling to close out the 2020 season.

The Bulldogs (7-2) were selected Sunday to participate in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl on Jan. 1. They will face off with the Cincinnati Bearcats, the 9-0 champions of the American Athletic Conference. The game, played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, will kick off at noon.

The ESPN announcing crew remarked Sunday that it will be interesting to see the defensive scheme of Cincinnati against the Georgia offense guided by quarterback J.T. Daniels.

“Georgia can score any way it wants right now,” ESPN commentator Jesse Palmer said.

Daniels, in three games as Georgia’s starter, has thrown for 839 yards, nine touchdowns and one interception on 54-of-81 passing.

This will mark Georgia’s sixth appearance in the bowl, with the program sporting a 3-2 record there. The last appearance came after the 2006 season, when Matthew Stafford led the Bulldogs to a 31-24 win over Virginia Tech.

As for its opponent, Georgia holds a 2-0 record all-time against the Bearcats. The Bulldogs won 35-13 in Cincinnati in 1942 and 31-17 in Athens in 1976.

Although it is a New Year’s Six bowl against a top program, it wasn’t necessarily where Georgia thought it would end up in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. The Bulldogs lost two games and failed to defend their SEC East title.

Time will tell what the team’s motivation will be and which players, if any, will decide to opt out of the game to prepare for the NFL Draft.

“The challenges of this season have been many for every team and I’m certainly excited for our team and especially our seniors to have the opportunity to play in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl,” UGA head coach Kirby Smart said in a statement from the team. “This is close to home and a venue we are very familiar with; however, none of our players and only a couple of our coaches have had the opportunity to participate in this game.

“We’re also looking forward to the challenge of playing a quality opponent in Cincinnati. Coach [Luke] Fickell has done a remarkable job with two 11-win seasons the last two years and a perfect season this year.”

This story was originally published December 20, 2020 at 2:34 PM.