Todd Gurley didn’t get the day off and Hutson Mason didn’t have an off day. That combination added up to a big day for the Georgia Bulldogs, who rolled the Vanderbilt Commodores 44-17 for a homecoming day victory at Sanford Stadium.
The No. 13-ranked Bulldogs (4-1, 2-1 SEC) entered the game as 34-point favorites over their over-matched visitors. Therefore, it was anticipated to be a short day’s work for Gurley.
It wasn’t.
The junior from Tarboro, N.C., got the majority of the touches throughout the game, not just as a tailback, but also as the de facto quarterback in Georgia’s direct-snap “Wild Dawg” formation. It was out of that formation that Gurley ran for one of his two touchdowns and threw a 50-yard pass to tight end Jeb Blazevich. He finished with 165 yards on 25 carries and two touchdowns while playing into the fourth quarter.
Mason, facing criticism all week — much of it of his own offing — responded to his coaches’ challenge to “just relax and rip it” when throwing the football. At times that served him well, such as when he threw a season-long touchdown pass of 44 yards to Chris Conley in the second quarter. But he also threw his third interception in the last two games and should have had another picked off.
As it was, with the help of his friends, Mason and the Bulldogs had their best passing day this season. Backups Brice Ramsey and Faton Bauta also got snaps at quarterback, and they combined for 202 yards and two touchdowns on 14-of-22 passing.
Georgia’s coaches did not discount the notion of a quarterback rotation when asked about it earlier this week, and it appeared that might’ve been the plan when Ramsey came in to run the offense at the 5:15 mark of the first quarter. But after completing 2-of-3 passes and leading the Bulldogs on a seven-play, 74-yard scoring drive, the redshirt freshman from Kingsland did not return to the game until the outcome was in hand with six minutes remaining.
Ramsey playing seemed to light a fire under Mason, who has struggled with the deep passing game this season. He came in on the next series and immediately hit Chris Conley for a 44-yard touchdown on a deep post over the middle. It was his longest pass completion of the season and gave the Bulldogs a 21-0 lead late in the first quarter.
Vanderbilt briefly threatened when it drove 66 yards to score on the ensuing possession. But then Mason led the Bulldogs on a seven-play, 80-yard drive to score on a five-yard pass to Conley just seven seconds before halftime. The Commodores blocked the point-after attempt, but the 27-7 lead made it almost pointless.
The rest of the game was essentially the Gurley show. Included in the highlights was another hurdling run by Gurley. He cleared a would-be Vanderbilt tackler in the midst of a 26-yard run to end a third quarter in which he’d carry the ball seven times for 70 yards. Including his 50 yard pass, he accounted for 237 yards on 28 touches.
The win represented yet another homecoming victory for Georgia over Vanderbilt in Sanford Stadium. The Bulldogs improve to 28-4 all time against the Commodores on their home field. They’ve won the last three games here by a combined score of 128-13.
Vanderbilt falls to 1-5 and 0-4 in SEC play under first-year coach Derek Mason. The Commodores, under former coach James Franklin, upset the Bulldogs 31-27 last year in Nashville.
The return of wide receivers Malcolm Mitchell and Justin Scott-Wesley was underwhelming. Mitchell recorded his first reception in two years on an 11-yard pass from Hutson Mason with the 11:07 mark of the first quarter. But it was one of two times he was targeted as he played very sparingly. And Scott-Wesley, suspended the first four games of the year, didn’t play at all.
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