Welcome to Tuesday, Bulldog fans! And not just any Tuesday, but the Tuesday after throttling the despised and higher-ranked Volunteers, giving Georgia an 8 game win streak in the rivalry. After an ugly yet typical first 15 minutes, the game got good. Well, good from a Bulldog perspective. In fact it was so good I’m gonna need a minute before we turn to the Minutemen of Massachusetts.
The much-maligned offensive line sacked up. And the end of the day, it was zero sacks given. Zero was also in the turnover column. The two Georgia touchdown drives of the 2nd half took up 13:43 of clock time – that’s not death march levels of glorious, but it ain’t bad either. 5 for 5 in the red zone, and more importantly 4 of those resulted in touchdowns. 10 different receivers caught a pass, and 6 of those receivers had a reception greater than 20 yards. I tell ya, I’m gonna need a minute.
I’m not the only one appreciating the renewed sense of accomplishment. The SEC awarded Tate Ratledge with offensive lineman of the week, and Brett Thorson special teams player of the week.
Conference HQ noticed Athens has more than football players. Asa Newell grabs his first, of undoubtedly many, awards as the Freshman of the Week in men’s hoops. Newell is top 10 in the SEC in scoring, rebounding, and blocks. He’s leading a balanced Mike White attack, who are 4-0 after a solid win in Atlanta against Tech. The Bulldogs host Alabama A&M tonight at Stegeman Coliseum in a continuation of the early-season out of conference schedule.
Shots fired, as the Bulldogs upcoming football opponent UMass decided to upstage Kirby, and Monday morning released a statement announcing the termination of head coach Don Brown. This is fresh off a close loss to Liberty, where they had a couple of chances to clinch the win late. They might need to look at signing Henry Silver for the kicking duties.
Head Coach Kirby Smart held his weekly press conference Monday. It appears the injury to Dillon Bell is minor, and he could be back in the lineup very soon. But with UMass, I have to believe both will be held out as emergency use only. The same with Earnest Greene and Micah Morris.
I’m always interested to see how the intrepid reporters at the Red & Black saw the game, and after last week’s debacle, especially so. These aren’t season-long grades, but snapshots of Saturday night. And those 4 hours produced some high marks.
SEC Shorts expands into more of a nationwide playoffs view this week, but when old acquaintances resurface, you should at least acknowledge them.
There is the matter of CFP rankings released tonight. I honestly didn’t watch last week because I was still depressed from the beatdown in Oxford. But the air is a little sweeter this week and I expect Georgia will be back in the committee’s top 12. In fact, I think UGA slides up to #10, while Boise St. and SMU round out the 12 slots. But with Boise being the G5 rep and still in the top 12, Georgia doesn’t suffer the indignity of being left out.
The SEC slate is done, the road trips are over, and it is unofficially a get-right week for the Bulldogs. So let’s get right right here. Have a great day, take a minute if you need to, and as always…
GO ‘DAWGS!!!
