It's difficult to imagine a fan base
being upset with a 48-7 victory. But, that appears to be the case with
Saturday's season opener vs UT Martin.
True, the team did get off to a sluggish start. Carson Beck's
first drive at quarterback went three and out and the team didn't get on the
board until a Brock Bowers three yard TD run with 3:40 in the first
quarter. It took another quarter for the next points as Beck ran one in from
four yards to put the Dawgs up 14-0 with 4:29 left in the first half. They
settled for a 23 yard field goal to make it 17-0 at the half.
The crowd seemed a bit restless as the second half began...not because
anyone had a fear of losing, but more results from the offense were in
order. By the end of the third quarter, 14 more points had been added with
an impressive 54 yard catch by Mikhi Mews and a 2 yard rush by
Roderick Robinson II.
By the fourth quarter, Kirby Smart was sending in a parade of
freshmen to the point that you couldn't recognize anyone in a red uniform.
But that was a good thing, giving new players some valuable playing time.
One of those was Brock Vandagriff ,who impressed with a two play
scoring drive highlighted by a 21 yard TD pass to Oscar Delp.
The Skyhawks finally began to move the ball a bit with 95 of their 260
total yards coming in the 4th quarter against those backups. They managed a
touchdown when graduate quarterback Kinkead Dent found Trevonte
Rucker in the corner of the end zone. Replay looked obvious that he
didn't have his feet in bounds. But, the refs gave him the points anyway.
UGA added another field goal and a defensive score with Jones taking an
interception to the house.
"The next step in this process is, what is the feedback?," Smart said.
"And I'm not talking about feedback from you guys, unfortunately I don't
care what you think or what you say. We get to watch the tape and say, 'What
does the feedback say?' and figure out who we are and where we go from
here."
There were a lot of mismatches in opening weekend highlighted by huge
point differentials. Forty one points should qualify for that. But, some
fans felt it should have been wider. I guess that's what you get with two
straight national championships. You're supposed to do what you did to TCU
every time. I imagine we'll see more of the same next week as Ball State
comes to town for a Saturday early noon kickoff.