On Monday morning, Wes Johnson was surprised to learn that Baseball America had ranked his Bulldogs the nation’s No. 1 team.

It sounded like “an honor” he could have done without.

“You don't want to know my real reaction,” Johnson said before practice on Wednesday. “I mean, it’s good for the program, I guess, and good for the University, you know, the publicity it gets. But for us at the end of the day, it's, man, you still have a lot of work to do. You want to host, you want to try to put yourself in position to host and then put yourself in position to be a national seed, and all of those things, and unfortunately, being ranked number one doesn't do that for you.”

Pitcher Brian Curley agreed.

Georgia’s Friday night starter said the team is more worried about earning a national seed, which would mean hosting privileges throughout the NCAA Tournament, than it is about being ranked No. 1 in the poll.

“You just shrug it off because it's like at the end of the day, rankings are not the most important thing,” Curley said. “It's cool, a little accolade, but we're not really giving it too much time.”

However, Curley acknowledged teams like this weekend’s opponent, Alabama, probably have more motivation than it did before.

Arkansas was ranked No. 1 when the Bulldogs took two of three games in Athens three weeks ago.

“Now, I think it definitely gives you some fire. It's like, all right, let's go take them down,” Curley said. “But I mean, if you're ranked number one, or you're ranked number 20, it doesn't really matter. If you have that same attitude and just beat the team in front of you, you're gonna have a good season.”

With six regular-season games left, three this weekend at Alabama and three next weekend at Foley Field against Texas A&M, Georgia’s mission is clear.

Georgia would seemingly need to split those six contests.

Currently, the Bulldogs (39-11, 15-9) sit tied with LSU for third place in the SEC, but just two games or less ahead of six other teams, including this weekend’s opponent, Alabama (37-12, 13-11).

The Bulldogs remain No. 1 in the NCAA’s RPI

“You better go win. If this is two weeks from now, yeah, we're really fired up, because then you're going to get, you're going to achieve all those goals (hosting and being a national seed),” Johnson said. “My view on that has always been leave no doubt, right, get in there. We’ve got six ball games left. You go 0-6, you're not doing anything, right?”

Since Chris Lemonis was jettisoned as the head coach at Mississippi State, Johnson’s name has been a popular subject of hotboards, including Baseball America and DIBaseball.com.

Both outlets have listed Johnson as a possible candidate for the MSU job, and on Wednesday, Georgia’s coach was asked for a response.

“I love Georgia,” Johnson said. “I have no plans of venturing to Starkville. I’ll just say that.”

Johnson spent one season at Mississippi State, serving as the pitching coach there in 2016.

The Arkansas native received a salary bump last year to $1 million as part of a contract extension to 2030 after leading the Bulldogs to the Super Regionals for the first time since 2008.

With Georgia’s success this season, it is expected that Johnson will see another bump in pay after the year is complete.

With the $45 million project at Foley Field complete, Johnson said he’s very grateful to the UGA Athletic Association for making it happen, and he’s pleased with the way the program is headed.

“We’ve got a little more tech that I want to do. My kids will tell you I’m a nerd. But as far as the actual ballpark, I love where we’re at,” Johnson said. “It’s our league, right? You can go ‘Oh, we need a bigger scoreboard’ or “Maybe we need to find a way to put in more seats.’ That’s not where my mind goes. I got to Ok, we need to get our hitting MOCAP (motion capture) in, stuff like that. I’m really happy with what we have here.”

Johnson said first baseman Ryland Zaborowski (elbow) is back to doing some activities with the bat. However, it’s unclear if he’ll be able to play in this weekend’s series at Alabama.

“We’ll see how he is today,” Johnson said of Zaborowski. “We’re not even tackling throwing.”

But Zaborowski’s glove isn’t Johnson’s concern. His bat, however, is, and getting him back in the lineup as soon as possible is the priority as soon as he’s able.

“There used to be an old saying, you shake a tree, and gloves and arms will fall out, but bats never do, and so we need the bat to fall back out of the tree,” said Johnson. “We’re just following the natural doctor's progression of where he's at. There’s this progression that we're going to follow.”

Zaborowski, who suffered the injury while making a relay throw in a Sunday game against Oklahoma, is batting .372 with 16 homers and 58 RBI.