It took God six days to create Earth, and on the seventh day he rested. All the while it took Georgia quarterback six games in waiting, and on the seventh game redshirt Sophomore transfer JT Daniels rested, and I mean this whole heartedly. Daniels started for the Dawgs between the hedges last Saturday night versus the Mississippi State Bulldogs and he had his way through the MSU Bulldogs defense with ease. There was so many unknowns going into this game as to how Daniels will play. He hasn’t played a football game since game one last year at University of Southern California where he left that game after tearing his left ACL.
But even though he was sacked on his third play from scrimmage last Saturday night, it felt even during that series that Head Coach Kirby Smart had finally made the correct decision at QB. Daniels was cleared to play from the ACL tear just a few weeks back, but Smart felt the best chance for Daniels was to wait for the Mississippi State game. Daniels could have played last week, but the Missouri game was postponed due to Covid reasons. The passing game was finally opened up and the wide receivers for UGA went off. Daniels went 28-38 for 401 yards and four touchdowns. The last time a Georgia quarterback threw over 300 yards was when Aaron Murray went 17-23 and threw 309 yards in a 41-30 win versus South Carolina in 2013. This was freshman wideout Jermaine Burton’s coming out party as well. With a throwing game behind him, Burton caught eight receptions, scored two touchdowns on 197 yards. Sophomore wideout George Pickens had eight receptions as well for 87 yards scoring one touchdown.
As a fan, my team never seems to have everything clicking all at once. With the passing game looking wonderful and the defense staying solid, the running game was below par. The team only had 23 yards for the game as star RB Zamir White had 11 carries for only 21 yards. Georgia is known as running back U for the talent that they seem to produce through the running back category, but not this night. I have one philosophy now with the NFL and college football, both are passing leagues, running the ball will only get you so far these days. It’s great to have a run game, but UGA has to be able to produce through the air if they really want to compete with the Alabama’s and Ohio State’s of today.
It was a great win for the team, and made great water cooler talk for fans in the office. Georgia next week travels to Columbia as they will face the South Carolina Gamecocks as former UGA quarterback and Offensive Coordinator Mike Bobo is the interim head coach for South Carolina. Game time set for Saturday, November 28 at 7:30pm on SEC Network.
Photo 1 Courtesy of Georgia Bulldogs
Photo 2 Courtesy of Dawg Sports
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