3 Georgia football players who deserve more snaps after Week 1

Week 1 couldn’t have gone much better for the Georgia Bulldogs. Kirby Smart’s team bullied Dabo Swinney’s to a 34-3 win in the Aflac Kickoff Game and they did it a bit short-handed. The Dawgs were without Trevor Etienne and Roderick Robinson II in the backfield, Jordan Hall and Xzavier McLeod on the defensive line, and lost Mykel Williams and Warren Brinson mid-game. 

Smart always has a significant back-log of talent on his roster, the benefit of landing a top-three recruiting class year after year, so a few new faces got to shine in Atlanta on Saturday. Now, this week Georgia is back in Athens, hosting Tennessee Tech, a rare cupcake on a brutally difficult schedule, and for that matchup, these three players earned a bigger opportunity with their performances against Clemson. 

Joseph Jonah-Ajonye isn’t the most well-known true freshman on Georgia’s defense, KJ Bolden led the group with 49 snaps on Saturday, and five-star cornerback Ellis Robinson IV is battling for CB2 reps, but Jonah-Ajonye could quickly become the most important. 

For all of Georgia’s dominance against Clemson, the Dawgs struggled to get pressure on Cade Klubnik, and at some point a better quarterback could punish them for it. Jonah-Ajonye was responsible for one of the team’s 13 pressures, though Jalon Walker finished off the only sack. 

With Williams likely to miss Week 2, Jonah-Ajonye did enough in his 13 defense snaps against Clemson to prove he belongs, and as a big body on the edge at 6-foot-4 275 pounds, he’s the best replacement. 

Walker will be the team’s best pass-rusher and that could even be the case once Williams is healthy, but he’s just 6-foot-2 and only 245-pounds. With the body of an off-ball linebacker, Walker can’t battle in the trenches every snap, but if Jonah-Ajonye can continue to pressure the quarterback, he’ll earn a full-time spot in the D-line rotation. 

Georgia has depth at wide receiver, but Carson Beck doesn’t have a go-to target, at least not yet. It’s unlikely that London Humphreys will become that, but after posting two catches for 61 yards and a touchdown with only five routes run, he deserves a chance. 

Against Clemson, Beck spread the ball around, but the sophomore transfer from Vanderbilt led the team in receiving yards and was featured in the offense once Dillon Bell left the game with cramps. On a team without much big-play ability, Humphreys displayed elite speed on his catch-and-run touchdown. 

Last season as a true freshman at Vandy, Humphreys averaged 2.02 yards per route run and amassed 229 of his 439 yards on targets over 20 yards downfield. He didn’t receive one deep target in Week 1, instead showcasing his yards after the catch ability, but with more opportunities, he may emerge as Georgia’s best field-stretcher. 

In the passing game, Georgia leaned on two transfers, Humphreys and Miami (FL) transfer Colbie Young, who caught Beck’s other touchdown toss. On the ground, without Etienne and Robinson, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo eventually turned to true freshman four-star Nate Frazier. 

Clemson is no longer a national title contender, but the Tigers still have multiple future NFL players on their defensive line. That group bottled up Branson Robinson in his return from an injury that kept him out for the entire 2023 season. Frazier, however, was able to get some traction running behind Georgia’s veteran offensive line and finished with 83 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. 

Etienne will return after missing Week 1 from a suspension, but Frazier was recruited to be Georgia’s next star running back and looked the part from his very first snaps. There’s no way that Smart and Bobo can keep him on the sidelines.