Georgia Bulldogs at Tennessee Volunteers Game Day Preview
Georgia football faces off against the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday. Here’s an in-depth preview and how to watch and how to watch or listen to the game.
If you want to watch the Georgia football game live on TV, you can do so on ESPN, or you can also stream the game on the ESPN app.
There are many radio stations that you can tune into, but it depends on where you live or are.
Click here to see what radio station you can tune into to listen to the game.
Georgia and Tennessee could not be further apart in team trajectories. The Bulldogs are 4-0 and are coming off of a stellar win against a top ten ranked Notre Dame team. Tennessee is 1-3 with losses to BYU and Georgia State, and their only win came against the Chattanooga Mocs.
The Bulldogs are on track to compete for a national championship while the Vols are likely to finish without being bowl eligible.
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Georgia’s defense will be operating in somewhat uncharted waters as the Vols have chosen to start freshman quarterback Brian Maurer against the ‘Dawgs on Saturday.
Maurer has never started a game before and has only attempted 13 career passes.
He completed four of those passes for 44 yards and an interception. So the output, while based on extremely small sample size, has not been great, and he will likely struggle against what has been a solid Georgia defense.
Because of this inexperience, there’s not much to go off of with how to handle this quarterback, but I expect that head coach Kirby Smart and his defensive staff will come up with a good game plan for how to contain the new threat.
Even with the new quarterback, the Vols offense still has a weapon or two to throw at the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs will have to contend with Vols standout wide receiver Jauan Jennings and running back Ty Chandler. Jennings has 298 yards on just 19 receptions for four touchdowns, while Chandler has rushed 52 times for 282 yards and two touchdowns.
Georgia has the fifth-ranked rushing defense in college football and only allows 57 yards per game on the ground and a minuscule 2.30 yards per rush allowed.
This Bulldog defense is led by safety J.R. Reed who is third on the team in tackles with 18 and is tied for the team lead in passes defended and interceptions and also has a fumble recovery for a touchdown.
The defense is also headed up by two stellar linebackers in Monty Rice and Tae Crowder. Combined, the two have 39 tackles and are the backbone of this defense.
Together, the two linebackers set the tone and provide the defense with strong leadership that makes it the fifth-ranked rushing defense and the ninth-ranked overall defense.
On the offensive side of things, the Dawgs are coming off of a victory in which it was their passing game that was the biggest reason the Bulldogs came out on top.
Quarterback Jake Fromm was sharp and had only a couple of poorly thrown balls, but was otherwise brilliant throughout the game.
The running game was more good than bad but was still inconsistent until the fourth quarter when the wear and tear became too much for the Irish defense.
Georgia saw against the Irish that it takes more than just a strong rushing game to beat the top teams in college football.
Fromm proved that he is up to the challenge of leading this offense when the defense can stop the run. On the season, Fromm has completed 75.6 percent of passes for 788 yards and six touchdowns for 9.6 yards per attempt.
Fromm also has some very dangerous weapons at his disposal as well, though. Leading the charge, somewhat surprisingly, is freshman wideout Dominick Blaylock.
Blaylock has nine receptions for 179 yards and two touchdowns.
He is a dynamic do-it-all receiver that is best when he is doing his work over the middle of the field and can use his speed and natural abilities to gain separation and yards.
Fromm has also seemed to have taken a liking to transfer receiver Lawrence Cager as well.
Cager has not been featured much the first three games of the year, but Fromm must have developed a connection and rapport with him finally because he was Fromm’s go-to guy without a doubt against the Irish.
He caught five passes for 82 yards and what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown.
Those two wideouts are only a couple of the weapons, however. Fromm also has physical freak George Pickens and speedster Demetrius Robertson to throw to as well.
He also has shown an affinity for using transfer tight end Eli Wolf as a safety blanket, and he also has the option of checking down to elite running back D’Andre Swift.
The Volunteer defense has been OK against the pass and rank in the mid-20s in most passing defense metrics while allowing 760 yards through the air and allows about 55 percent of passes to be completed.
Tennesssee allows about 190 yards per game and a quarterback rating allowed of 115.2.
This matchup could very well end up being a game in which offensive coordinator James Coley decides to let Fromm loose all the way finally, and we could get to enjoy a high-flying attack that comes from the right arm of Jake Fromm.
However, the Bulldogs are a strong running team, and Coley will get his running backs carries, just not as many as they usually do.
Speaking of these backs, they are led by elite runner D’Andre Swift, who is a dual-threat and can take the ball and do damage both on the ground and through the air.
Swift has rushed for 388 yards on 49 attempts for an average of 7.9 yards per carry and three touchdowns.
Swift isn’t the only running threat the Dawgs have to offer, however.
They have four running backs that have over 100 yards rushing and one more that is just one yard short.
The team combined has 12 rushing touchdowns and offers rushing threats from both the running backs and wide receivers when they take the jet sweeps.
Georgia’s offense will have no problem putting up points on the scoreboard against a mediocre Tennessee defense, and the biggest challenge for the Bulldogs will be making sure a freshman quarterback won’t beat them in his first start.
The only reason why that is a challenge is that he has minimal live-action snaps, and his playing style could surprise the defense.
Next. Georgia football: Dawgs go undefeated in the state of Tennessee. dark
This game won’t be hard for the Bulldogs to clinch a win in Knoxville after what will be a strong showing from both sides of the ball.
At the end of the game, the Bulldogs will come out on top 45-6. You can see the rest of the staff predictions by clicking here.