ATHENS – For a team that wants to have a “vertical passing” offense, it wasn’t great. For one rebuilding its entire secondary, it was pretty good. Somewhere in between is your 2021 Georgia Bulldogs football team.
For the record, the offensively tilted Red team defeated the defensive-oriented Black team 28-23. Twenty of the game’s points were scored in the fourth quarter.
All players were accounted for, though many didn’t make it onto the participation sheet. So, it wasn’t exactly a vividly realistic representation of how Bulldogs will look like when they arrive in Charlotte for the season opener against Clemson on Sept. 4.
But it was a smashing success from the standpoint of that 20,524 bought tickets for it, the sun came out with the possibility of rain in the forecast and no major injuries were suffered.
“I was happy to have great weather, great fan support and I thought our students turned out really well down there in the west end zone,” coach Kirby Smart said. “That was good to see and the atmosphere was good and no major injuries, which was great.”
Some stars were born as well. Write this name down: Adonai Mitchell.
He’s known as “A.D.” by his coaches and teammates. The true freshman from Missouri City, Texas, got the start at the Bulldogs’ battered split-end position and responded with a game-high 105 yards on 7 receptions and a touchdown.
Whether he will make Georgia forget about the injured George Pickens remains to be seen. Pickens, an All-American candidate and projected first-round NFL draft pick in April 2022, watched the game from the sidelines, sans crutches. He suffered a torn ACL the second week of spring practice.
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
But Georgia also was without split ends Jermaine Burton (sprained knee), Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint (ankle) and Justin Robinson (lower leg), too. So Mitchell’s performance was encouraging, if not an answered prayer.
Quarterback JT Daniels’ numbers ended up looking pretty good. He was 28-of-41 for 324 yards passing and three touchdowns, with no interceptions. But he was slow to get going against a salty No. 1 defense, which sacked him three times in the first half.
And Daniels wasn’t exactly popping the lid off the defense. He was credited with a 59-yard TD pass to Demetris Robertson with 1:54 remaining in the game. Never mind Georgia wouldn’t likely be attempting such a thing nursing a five-point lead inside the 2-minute mark, but Robertson might’ve gotten away with a little shove with left cornerback Ameer Speed on the ground at about the 25-yard line.
Otherwise, Daniels’ longest completion was 38 yards to James Cook on a wheel route.
“G-Days are built around a lot of two-minute drives, a lot of hurry-up, a lot of throwing and catching the ball,” Smart said. “That reduces the chance of injuries. When you’re doing that, there’s a lot of intermediate passing game, kind of like 7-on-7. The defense is playing a lot of quarter-quarter-halves, which doesn’t allow you take the top off a lot of times. But I did think we caught the ball well. And we didn’t have all our arsenal out there.”
The Red squad missed on the chance for nine other points as well. Jake Camarda, who is the full-time punter, filled in for the injured Jared Zirkel and missed three field-goal attempts. But none were chip shots, with two from 42 yards and one from 57.
Redshirt freshman Carson Beck got most of the snaps for the Black squad and performed well overall. He was 22-of-31 for 236 yards and 2 scores. Stetson Bennett took a couple of turns for the Red, freshman Brock Vandagriff created some oohs and ahs for the Black squad -- both with plays and miscues -- and even walk-on Jackson “son of Will” Muschamp got into the game.
As for the blanks on the depth chart fans are so desperate to see filled, the Bulldogs’ starting cornerbacks were senior Ameer Speed and redshirt freshman Jalen Kimber, the nickel back was Latavious Brini, Xavier Truss started at left tackle and redshirt freshman Tate Ratledge started at right guard.
Ratledge got the call because senior Jamaree Salyer did not participate. “Banged up” was the best explanation provided. The starter at left tackle last season, Salyer is expected to play left guard this fall.
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Another offensive star Saturday was tight end Darnell Washington. Considered doubtful for the game after missing most of spring practice with an illness, he not only played, but he finished with four catches for 84 yards – including a highlight catch of 51 yards – and scored a touchdown.
Washington played for the Black team, and his touchdown throw came from Beck. As for Daniels, 12 of his throws went to backs. For that, he was not apologizing.
“I love throwing the ball to our backs,” Daniels said. “Especially when you have James Cook and Zamir and the other guys we have. I think check-downs are one of the most underrated facets of football. At a bare minimum it’s three yards, and that’s if the first guy tackles them. It’s very, very rare that the first guy tackles our backs.”
Georgia hardly even tried to the ball. Kendall Milton led the way with 34 yards on 8 carries as the two teams combined for only 113 yards rushing. Milton and Daijun Edwards combined for 10 catches and Cook and Zamir White combined for 12. The final numbers looked like this: 365 total yards and 302 passing for Black; 422 and 382 for Red.
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