ATHENS — Georgia coach Kirby Smart was asked if there were going to be any presentations, special recognitions or unveilings Saturday to acknowledge Georgia’s 2021 national championship.
You can probably guess his answer.
“I have no idea,” Smart said, incredulously. “It hasn’t crossed my mind, and nobody has approached me with it. I haven’t even thought about it.”
The Bulldogs are hosting a game at Stadium as defending national champions for the first time since 1981. That one went well, by the way. Georgia thumped Tennessee 44-0 in what also was the season opener that year.
This time around, the opponent is little ol’ Samford University. The Birmingham-based FCS program from the Southern Conference will arrive as nine-touchdown underdogs.
There will be at least one new reminder of last season’s accomplishment in Stadium. A metal “2021″ plate has been affixed next to those denoting Georgia’s previous consensus national championships of 1942 and 1980. Meanwhile, there most definitely will be some notable pregame reminders highlighted on UGA’s massive west-end videoboard.
Otherwise, the No. 2-ranked Bulldogs (1-0) will be firmly focused on Samford (1-0) and improving on things that didn’t go perfectly in the 49-3 win over Oregon on Saturday. That has to be discomforting for the visitors.
Here are five storylines for Saturday’s game:
‘Hatch Attack’
Samford’s Chris Hatcher gets credit for launching Smart’s coaching career. He was head coach at Valdosta State in 2000 and in need of a defensive backs coach when he hired Smart, then a first-year “administrative assistant” at Georgia. Smart would succeed Will Muschamp as defensive coordinator the next year before moving on to FBS jobs at Florida State, LSU and Alabama.
Smart said he learned a lot from Hatcher in those early years.
“You know, he’s always been one of the best recruiters in terms of his relationships with high school coaches,” Smart said. “He was incredible. His disposition with the team was always confident. He just believed that we could win every game, and he embodied that. He embraced that. His players loved playing for him because of the energy he exudes with the players.”
Hatcher was a record-setting quarterback at Valdosta State before transferring to Kentucky to play for coach Hal Mumme. He is known for his version of the “Air Raid” offense called the “Hatch Attack,” and his teams typically throw the ball all over the field. Samford used that system to upset Kennesaw State in a season-opening win last week.
Samford will receive $500,000 from UGA to play at Sanford Stadium, but Hatcher said the overall experience is invaluable to his team.
“Our guys don’t get to play in this atmosphere very much,” Hatcher said on the “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning” podcast this week. “Every time I walk in these big stadiums I think, ‘This is awesome!’ The players feel the same way. They get to showcase their talent against the best in the country. I just hope that half-million-dollar check doesn’t bounce because that’s big for our program as well.”
‘Stet the Jet’ still soaring
Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett, who hitched a ride with the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angel squadron earlier this summer, is still soaring with the Bulldogs. A sixth-year senior from Blackshear, Bennett was named national offensive player of the week by the Walter Camp Foundation and a “star of the week” by the Manning Award after completing 25 of 31 passes for 368 yards and two touchdowns against Oregon.
That continues a streak of exemplary play for Bennett. Including his MVP performances against Michigan in the Orange Bowl and Alabama in the College Football Playoff Championship game last season, Bennett has completed 71.2% of his passes (62 of 87) for 905 yards and seven touchdowns with zero interceptions in Georgia’s past three games.
That streak has left Bennett’s less-than-stellar performance against Alabama in the SEC Championship game in December as an almost forgotten memory. Bennett threw for 340 yards and three TDs in that 41-24 loss, but he also had two interceptions and was sacked three times.
Some fans called for Bennett to be replaced at that time, but Smart never considered it.
“You guys don’t see every single practice, every single rep that led up to the Alabama game and all the reps from South Carolina to the time he played UAB, all the way through,” Smart said. “There’s a million things you don’t see (in practice) against a pretty elite defense. So, there was enough of that to convince me that we were going with the right guy.”
Defense stays stingy
Georgia’s defense was expected to take a step back this season after losing eight players overall and five first-rounders to the NFL draft in April. But for one week at least, the Bulldogs looked just as good against Oregon.
The Ducks managed only a field goal and 313 yards of total offense in the opener. That represented the first time since 2017 Oregon hadn’t scored a touchdown in a game.
It took a goal-line stand late in the game to keep the Ducks out of the end zone. An 18-play, 87-yard drive got Oregon to the Georgia 2-yard line with 1:22 to play. But quarterback Bo Nix’s final pass of the game fell incomplete, and the Bulldogs’ red-zone defensive prowess was preserved.
Georgia led the nation in red-zone defense in 2021, holding opponents scoreless on 12 of 32 trips inside the 20-yard line. This time, the Bulldogs did it with six first-time defensive starters and eight freshmen on the field.
“They still have a lot to improve on,” Smart said of the defense. “There were a lot of mistakes. (But) the largest growth for those guys is Game 2 to Game 3, in terms of reaction to their mistakes. … We’ll get to find out what those young freshmen’s responses are this week.”
Kenny Mac Attack
The most notable change in Georgia since last season has been its penchant for throwing the football, particularly to its running backs out of the backfield.
Senior Kenny McIntosh has taken over as RB1 this season, and he led the Bulldogs in receiving in the opener, with 117 net yards on nine catches. Even more remarkable, he was credited for 119 “yards after catch.”
In all, running backs accounted for 13 of the Bulldogs’ 30 receptions in the opener.
“I love catching the ball out of the backfield,” said McIntosh, who scored a 1-yard rushing TD. “It was fun out there.”
Crowded sideline
There are 22 “ORs” listed on Georgia’s depth chart this week. That means either this player OR that one could start at a particular position. In some cases, there are more than one “or” at a single position, such as there are at defensive end or kick returner.
The fact is, the Bulldogs are going to play a lot of players in Saturday’s game. They’re expected to dress out at least 100 players. Georgia played 72 players against Oregon. More will play against Samford.
It follows that Georgia likely will rest some of its front-line players. Safety Christopher Smith, defensive star against Oregon, is cleared to play after suffering a pinched nerve in his left shoulder last week but likely won’t stay on the field long if he starts. Freshman receiver De’Nylon Morrissette (hamstring) likely won’t play.
Otherwise, Smart said it’s all hands on deck. He’s seeking improvement ahead of next week’s SEC opener at South Carolina.
“You always have to improve,” Smart said. “If we’re really good at something, I want to be really better. If we’re not good enough at something, obviously, I want to improve that. Incrementally, I want everything to go up and get better at it. I want us to execute at a higher level.”
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