ATHENS – Georgia football hopes an ideal start to the season continues Saturday as the No. 2-ranked Bulldogs play host to South Carolina in the SEC opener at Sanford Stadium.
The schedule could not set up much better for Georgia (2-0) than it has so far. It started with a hard-fought win over then-No. 3 Clemson in the opener in Charlotte before last week’s thorough domination of Alabama-Birmingham at home.
Now comes the rebuilding Gamecocks (2-0), who are under the direction of first-time coach Shane Beamer. Georgia remained favored by more than 30 points Friday, which is one of the more lopsided SEC lines in history for the Bulldogs. After that, their first conference road game awaits with a Sept. 25 trip to Nashville to visit another rebuilding team in Vanderbilt.
It’s almost like an NFL exhibition season for the Bulldogs. They have been able to get players healthy and work out the kinks before a embarking on a much more challenging October slate that includes Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky and Florida.
“We’re excited to have a night game against South Carolina to open the SEC East,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “It’s always a different kind of environment to play at night at home, and our guys are excited about it. Any time you play an SEC game, you know it’s going to be tough and physical. So we’re looking forward to playing this game.”
It has been a relative cruise so far, with the Bulldogs winning their first two games by a combined score of 66-10. But it hasn’t been without adversity. For the second consecutive week, it’s unclear who might start at quarterback or if there will be a rotation. Senior Stetson Bennett was the surprise starter Saturday when JT Daniels couldn’t go because of a lingering oblique injury, and Bennett played out of his mind. Daniels’ recovery has continued into this week and, while Daniels has improved, Smart has stopped short of designating him or any other Georgia player as QB1.
Smart also revealed this week that Bennett himself has been dealing with a lower-back issue following his highly efficient 10-for-12, 288-yard, five-touchdown performance in the 56-7 win Saturday. Whatever the extent, the injury wasn’t enough for Bennett’s teammates to notice as he and Daniels exchanged snaps with the No. 1 offense throughout the week.
“They’re just rotating,” senior offensive tackle Jamaree Salyer said. “Both of those guys are working in there, getting their reps. Honestly, for me, I barely even notice who’s back there. Both of those guys are really great players; both of those guys have great command of the offense. So, you kind of don’t even realize if it’s (No.) 13 or 18 back there.”
That’s where Georgia and South Carolina are different. Though the Gamecocks also are undefeated so far, they spent the majority of the preseason and the first two weeks of the season fretting over quarterbacks. So dire was the Gamecocks’ depth situation at the position that they convinced graduate assistant coach Zeb Noland of Watkinsville to utilize his remaining season of eligibility and suit up to play quarterback. Noland, who played at Iowa State and North Dakota State as an undergrad, eventually earned the starting job. He has averaged 173 yards passing with five touchdowns and an interception to get South Carolina to this point unscathed.
In the meantime, projected starter Luke Doty returned from a foot injury that kept him sidelined since the second week of preseason camp. Beamer pronounced Doty “100% healthy” for Saturday’s game. So, he’s expected to play, if not start and take over entirely.
Whoever quarterbacks the Gamecocks will face a Georgia defense that leads the nation in fewest yards allowed (177 per game) and has recorded 10 quarterback sacks and 34 pressures in the first two games. The quarterback will do that behind an offensive line that allowed four sacks to directional schools Eastern Illinois and East Carolina.
Pro Football Focus grades South Carolina last in the SEC in pass protection over the first two games. That’s a distinction with which Beamer takes issue, but he knows the challenge Saturday will be great.
“Have we been perfect on pass pro? No. Is it as bad as some people want to analyze and say that it’s been? Absolutely not,” Beamer said. “But it’s a concern every week, and certainly against these guys because they’re really good up front.”
Beamer is part of a coaching subplot that runs beneath Saturday’s game. Beamer was tight ends coach and special-teams coordinator for Smart’s first two seasons at Georgia. He bolted for Oklahoma right after the Bulldogs defeated the Sooners in the Rose Bowl in the 2017 season.
Meanwhile, Will Muschamp has been helping out his old buddy Smart at Georgia pretty much since Muschamp left South Carolina in November. That’s when he was fired after five years as the Gamecocks’ head coach. Muschamp, whose son Jackson is a walk-on quarterback for the Bulldogs, officially was hired by UGA as a defensive analyst in February. Then he was promoted to special-teams coordinator and defensive assistant after Scott Cochran took a sudden leave of absence in late July.
Muschamp is, of course, familiar with at least 80 percent of the Gamecocks’ roster and much of their internal operation. But both of the current head coaches downplayed his impact on Saturday’s game.
“We go through it every year,” Smart said. “Somebody changes spots, you guys write about it, make a big deal about it and it’s not that big a deal.”
Potentially more impactful is a weather forecast that is predicting a 40 percent chance of rain Saturday night. But that prediction is significantly better than it was earlier in the week.
Overconfidence should not be an issue for Georgia. More than half of the roster was playing for the Bulldogs in 2019 when a three-loss South Carolina team that was thought to be equally overmatched came to Sanford Stadium and shocked the previously undefeated Bulldogs 20-17 in double overtime. Accordingly, Smart appealed to UGA fans to please ignore the forecast and come support the team.
“I am certainty thankful for our fan base,” Smart said. “I thought the turnout we had last week was awesome, and you don’t always get that for non-conference opponents. So, I know that this week will be even more special. We will need our fan base to help us out with the crowd noise and the environment.”
If they do, then the tune-up likely shall continue.
