Buckle up your bootstraps buddy because we’ve got a big one this weekend.
Another top-10 team is coming to town, this time in the form of the 2-loss Texas Longhorns looking for a big win to potentially save their playoff hopes. Georgia looks to stay in the hunt for yet another SEC title while also enacting further revenge on Texas for Bevo’s cowardly attack on Uga before the 2019 Sugar Bowl.
Now that Georgia is 2-0 against Texas since that day, hopefully that future slab of meat learned a valuable lesson and will pick on people his own size from now on. I find a lot of comfort knowing that boisterous beast will not be present between our beautiful hedges.
This big game is all thanks to the expansion of the SEC, which opened the door for a lot of new yet historic matchups. It’s hard to believe given their long histories, but this will be Texas’ first time playing in Athens. The last time there was a burnt orange in Athens was during General Sherman’s march.
As someone who moved to Texas as an adult male, I can unfortunately assure you that not everything magically gets bigger just becuase you’re in Texas. But the saying of “Everything is Bigger in Texas” is true to an extent, especially when looking at their team’s loss column, preseason hype, and amount of time between national championships.
Speaking of preseason hype, we all finally get to see Arch “Gob” Manning play a game in Sanford Stadium. Kirby Smart, the Georgia defense, and 92,000+ rabid fans aim to remind him that he made a huge mistake in picking Texas over Georgia during his recruitment.
Opponents have shown that Arch and Texas are prone to get rattled on the road. The Horns were dominated in the Swamp by a now-coachless Florida team and were taken to overtime on the road against preverbal conference bottom-feeders Mississippi State and Kentucky.
If Georgia is going to rattle the cattle, so to speak, they will have to break their normal tendency and play aggressive from the beginning. Last week’s game in Starkville, where the Dawgs actually led a game at halftime, could be a sign that the winds have changed in our sail’s favor. But it could also be an outlier against an inferior opponent.
Georgia’s defense had immense success against Texas’ so-called “high powered” offense last season by controlling the line of scrimmage, blitzing often, and forcing turnovers. Georgia hasn’t been able to generate as much pressure this season without the likes of Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams, but Coach Smart has shown that he is willing to send a DB on a surprise blitz at the perfect time. We saw this in last season’s game in Austin with Daylen Everette’s sack-fumble, so Manning should be expecting a lot of the same this time around.
We know it’s bad luck to walk under the Arch before graduating, but nowhere in the bylaws does it state that it’s bad luck to blitz Arch early in the game. I hope noted rule-follower and UGA Defensive Coordinator Glenn Schumann has made note of that.
Like Georgia’s defensive front, Texas’ offensive line has also taken a major step back after losing four starters from last season. Even though Georgia did generate 3 sacks last week, the battle between Georgia’s defensive line and Texas’ offensive line is a classic matchup of a “stoppable force vs. a moveable object” that could decide the outcome of the game.
On the other side of the ball, Texas’ defense is as strong a unit as UGA will see all year. They are big, physical, and fast, and get back some much needed experience with All-American safety Michael Taaffe returning from injury.
Trying to run sideline to sideline can be tough against this unit, so expect to see a lot of carries for bruising RB Chauncey Bowens, who like a Texas governor is hard to stop once he gets rolling downhill.
Georgia was as conservative as a west Texas mayor when Gunner Stockton replaced an injured Carson Beck the last time these teams played. But with more experience and a more reliable group of receivers, the offensive play calling should be a little more creative this time.
Both teams come into this game with a little momentum and a lot to prove. With no major talent disparity for any group, this game might come down to who can hang on to the ball and avoid costly penalties.
The city of Athens will be rocking all weekend long with thousands descending upon campus and downtown, walking under or around the only Arch in town that isn’t a nepo baby.
The atmosphere inside Sanford Stadium will be electric after a full day of tailgating, and expect security lines to be a little slow as they check a record number of boots for hidden shooters.
There are a few truths within this matchup that we know for sure: Red is superior to orange. Uga is cuter than Bevo. Tropicalia is better than Lone Star and Waffle House is better than Torchy’s. A-T-H is a smoother abbreviation than A-T-X.
How these two talented teams stack up against each other is a little more unknown, but luckily we get to find that out soon.
