It was a beautiful day for Georgia to honor its seniors and other draft-eligible Dawgs, even if Mother Nature dialed up brisk temperatures in Athens. While not at capacity, the crowd was enthusiastic, providing the honorees with a steady cascade of cheers. The Bulldogs responded with an exciting display of offense and, as they have all season, stifling defense – as expected.
Competence was the watchword of the day. It was a day at the office for Georgia. The Dawgs would not have an emotional edge for a game against an FCS team that came to Athens for the guaranteed dollars – a rent-a-win. The Buccaneers, however, did their best to compete with the nation’s No. 1 team, but it was an impossible task against Georgia’s waves of talent.
Games like Charleston Southern provide the opportunity for playing time for down-roster guys and give those fans, who cannot find tickets to league games the chance to see their Bulldogs in person. Georgia got down to business right away, putting on a show for the fans. More importantly, the team came out and played solid fundamental football in a game that a less focused squad might have given a perfunctory effort.
The star of the day was everyone’s favorite giant of a football player, Jordan Davis. When Davis was sent in as a running back and scored on a less than elegant one-yard plunge, both the fans and his teammates heartily cheered the show. While Herschel has nothing to fear from Davis’ goal line leap, it was great that the staff allowed the massively popular defensive lineman a scoring opportunity.
When national powers like UGA schedule teams like Charleston Southern, we always hear pundits deriding the contest as a pure money play. To an extent, these games are about money. Still, with 12 regular season dates to fill and an assigned eight-game SEC schedule, it seems necessary for the team’s overall health to get a break from the league’s brutal lineup and give the hard-working players who rarely get playing time a moment in the spotlight.
Next Saturday, Georgia heads to Atlanta for some Clean Old-Fashioned Hate. There will be no postgame praise for a valiant effort from an outclassed opponent after that one—the Georgia-Georgia Tech rivalry may have lost some of its luster over the years because of Bulldog dominance, but make no mistake, this one is personal for the faithful.
To hell with Tech!