Georgia handled business this past Saturday against Austin Peay. They won 45-0 and dominated the entire game. It was exactly what we wanted to see. The game was never in question, and we escaped it without any significant injuries. It was a good start to the 2018 season.
The 2018 Georgia football team now sits at 1-0. In a way though, it actually feels like the season begins this Saturday. SEC play begins as the #3 Georgia Bulldogs travel to Columbia to take on SEC East opponent South Carolina.
As many of you have noticed, this has been a popular upset pick by a lot of sports media members. Will Muschamp took the 2017 Gamecocks to a respectable 9-4 record that included an Outback Bowl victory over Michigan. Even though we still beat them last season by a score of 24-10, they were actually the only East opponent that actually wasn’t completely dominated by the Dawgs.
They return talented starting quarterback Jake Bentley. They have a wide receiver in Deebo Samuel that could be a dark horse Heisman candidate with a big season. Will Muschamp is a defensive minded coach that has had some success in the past slowing down some pretty good offenses. The game is at their place. It’s early in the season and will be hot.
A loss here would put the Dawgs in a bad hole early in the SEC East race, as they would need South Carolina to lose two conference games. The Dawgs are 9.5-point favorites, but a lot of people will be taking South Carolina. This has all the ingredients for an upset, doesn’t it?
Everything I said above is true. They are reasons why a few have picked South Carolina to upset UGA. But let’s simplify this game. Let’s take a quick look at 4 major areas of the game that will decide the outcome Saturday that are more important than any of those I listed above and see who has the edge.
Offense
Advantage Georgia. And this isn’t saying South Carolina doesn’t have playmakers at the skill positions. They do. But you look at UGA’S offense as a whole and combine the quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and offensive line, Georgia gets the edge. South Carolina may indeed have the most dynamic offensive player playing in the game Saturday in Samuel but from top to bottom, the Dawgs have more overall talent.
Defense
Advantage Georgia. While South Carolina does have some talent on that side of the ball, including returning 2017 sack leader DJ Wonnum, there aren’t any teams in the conference outside of Auburn or Alabama who have talent close to stacked like the Dawgs. The 5 stars are stacked on this defense and they are playing for a coaching staff that seems right now to be getting 5 star performances out of those players.
Depth
Advantage Georgia. This is one of the most important keys to the game Saturday. It’s going to be hot. It’s going to be real hot. Which means there will be a lot of substitutions on both sides of the ball for both teams. This is one of the areas that Kirby’s elite recruiting will pay off. South Carolina has good players that will start. But their depth when those players get tired and start cramping simply doesn’t match Georgia’s.
Coaching
Advantage Georgia. I would say with Kirby Smart being last year’s SEC head coach of the year and being 2-0 against former Bulldog player and current South Carolina coach Will Muschamp would give the edge to Georgia.
Now we could sit and argue over the coördinator positions but at head coach, UGA is better right now. This isn’t a knock on Muschamp, by the way. He did a great job last year and besides getting bludgeoned by an eventual playoff team in Clemson, they looked pretty good and well coached the second half of the season. Still, the proof is in the numbers.
So, let’s recap. Georgia has the better offense. They have the better defense. More depth. And they have the better coaching staff. So for those four simple but significant reasons, I’m not buying the upset talk. The Dawgs go into Williams Brice Stadium on Saturday and while it may be close going into the 3rd quarter and perhaps even early in the 4th, the Dawgs come out with their first SEC win of the year.