The Sugar Bowl usually feels like familiar ground for Georgia. New Orleans has been kind to the Bulldogs over the years, and the stage rarely rattles them. This time, though, it belonged to Ole Miss. But Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks kept it classy. He shelved any bad blood and shared a tight embrace with Rebels athletic director Keith Carter.

“Make sure you enjoy it,” the camera captured Georgia’s athletic director, Brooks, saying while he greeted Carter postgame. “The first one, I never enjoyed it.”

The first time Ole Miss won the Sugar Bowl was on January 1, 1958. Skipping a season, they again won in 1960 and in 1961. Then they continued winning a few more. But against Georgia this season, they have been able to seal their luck, ending a drought of 10 years since their last victory on January 1, 2016. 

As Georgia’s athletic director pointed out, this Sugar Bowl win was a first for Carter to experience firsthand. He joined Ole Miss’ athletic department in September 2009, stepped in as interim athletic director after Ross Bjork left in May 2019, and officially shed the interim tag that November. 

That timeline meant he wasn’t around for the Rebels’ last Sugar Bowl triumph in 2016, making this moment extra sweet. This was the same feeling that Georgia’s Brooks was craving to witness.

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Georgia captured their first Sugar Bowl title in 20 years in 2003 against the Florida State Seminoles after a 1981 win. After that, the Bulldogs’ luck in the Sugar Bowl favored them in 2008 and 2020. Unfortunately, Brooks was named J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics at the University of Georgia a year later in 2021.

So, it’s easy to see where he was coming from. He was genuinely happy for Carter, knowing just how long that Sugar Bowl drought had been sitting heavy on his heart.

Beyond the Sugar Bowl drought, Georgia is showing plenty of love to Brooks. The Bulldogs’ athletic association executive committee greenlit a one-year contract extension through 2031. Along with it, they gave a $125,000 annual raise that bumps the Bulldogs’ athletic director’s six-year average base salary to $1.75 million.

The deal also sweetens the pot with performance-based incentives tied to academics and Learfield Directors Cup finishes.

“Since his hiring, Josh Brooks has been an outstanding leader for Georgia athletics and proven to be one of the nation’s most successful and widely respected athletic directors,” University of Georgia president Jere W. Morehead said in a statement.

On the other hand, freshly named Ole Miss’s permanent athletic director in December 2019, Carter wasted no time, landing Lane Kiffin from Florida Atlantic. He first arrived in Oxford in 1996 as a standout on the basketball court.

After returning to the program in 2009 with the Ole Miss Athletic Foundation, Carter steadily climbed the ladder to the top job. While he goes home with a Sugar Bowl win, Brooks and the Georgia players go home empty-handed.

And after all this, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart comes off as guilty.  

Where Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs’ math fell apart

A year ago, Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton was still finding his footing in his first real start as Georgia bowed out of the CFP. This time, he was the Bulldogs’ lifeline against Ole Miss. Stockton accounted for three total touchdowns, completing passes of 15+ yards to seven different targets.

He absorbed shot after shot to keep Georgia breathing, nearly dragging them to a win. Bulldogs wide receiver Zachariah Branch was already knocking on history’s door with 73 catches, but he kicked it down this week. His eight grabs for 67 yards and a touchdown pushed him past the single-season receptions mark. 

With that performance, the USC transfer blew past Brice Hunter’s 76-catch Sugar Bowl benchmark. Branch wrapped up the 2025 season with 81 receptions, 811 yards, and six touchdowns.

“They were out of timeouts,” said Smart in the post-game presser. “And the decision was what he talked about. Do we run it on third and just play for a tie? Because it’s hard to run the ball in from third and three, or I don’t know what yard line we were on. I felt like it was three, three and a half, two, like a two-point play.

The Bulldogs believed in their red-zone efficiency. What they didn’t survive was a disastrous fourth-down gamble just outside it. The game flipped at Ole Miss 33. A mistimed snap led to a strip-sack, an Ole Miss recovery, and a quick touchdown that flipped the game. 

Georgia Bulldogs’ Josh Brooks took the Sugar Bowl loss in stride. Next season, the aim is to take the trophy instead.