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Georgia 63, Tennessee State 3: Bulldogs waste little time putting opener away

Georgia did not need long Saturday to establish what kind of afternoon Tennessee State was facing.

Nate Frazier touched the ball for the first time and went 48 yards for a touchdown. His second carry ended in the end zone, too. By the end of the first quarter, Georgia had scored four touchdowns, Tennessee State had yet to gain a yard, and whatever suspense accompanied a season opener had disappeared into a 28-point lead.

The No. 3 Bulldogs opened the 2026 season with a 63-3 win at Sanford Stadium, handling an overmatched opponent about as decisively as expected while getting something more useful out of the afternoon: clean work from Gunner Stockton, explosive production from Frazier and significant snaps for much of the roster.

Georgia finished with 660 yards of offense and held Tennessee State to 109. Seven Bulldogs scored touchdowns, and three quarterbacks directed scoring drives.

But the most important work was finished before halftime.

Stockton played five possessions and Georgia scored touchdowns on all five. The senior completed 15 of 16 passes for 202 yards and three touchdowns, distributing the ball to nine receivers and rarely giving Tennessee State a chance to make him uncomfortable.

That mattered more than the final margin.

Georgia was always supposed to overwhelm an FCS opponent that entered the afternoon 0-1. What Kirby Smart needed to see was an offense operate efficiently enough that the Bulldogs could spend most of the second half evaluating players rather than fixing problems.

Stockton delivered that.

Georgia needed only three plays on its opening possession. After a Talyn Taylor reception and a Landon Roldan run, Frazier took a handoff 48 yards for the first touchdown of the season.

The next Georgia possession lasted five plays. Frazier finished that one with a 14-yard touchdown run.

By then the mismatch was obvious. Georgia’s defense forced another punt, Stockton hit Isiah Canion for 15 yards, Taylor broke a 31-yard run and Stockton found tight end Elyiss Williams for a 17-yard touchdown. The Bulldogs led 21-0 with 6:30 still remaining in the first quarter.

Taylor added an 11-yard touchdown reception from Stockton later in the period, giving Georgia a 28-0 lead. The numbers were almost absurd at that point: Georgia had 228 yards of offense. Tennessee State had zero.

Stockton’s final possession carried into the second quarter and produced more of the same. He completed passes to Williams and Craig Dandridge Jr. before finding Jaden Reddell for a 14-yard touchdown and a 35-0 lead.

That was enough for Georgia’s starting quarterback.

The significance of Stockton’s afternoon was not that he shredded Tennessee State. He was expected to do that. It was how little wasted motion there was in doing it. Georgia scored on every possession he played, he missed one pass, and the offense produced both explosive plays and sustained drives.

Frazier’s workload was even smaller and his production somehow more ridiculous. He carried four times for 72 yards and scored three touchdowns, adding a 3-yard score early in the third quarter after Ryan Puglisi took over at quarterback.

Tennessee State’s only points came on Preston Hurless’ 37-yard field goal late in the second quarter. Georgia still went to halftime leading 35-3 with a 358-41 advantage in total offense.

At that stage, the game became less about the score than the opportunity to get the rest of the roster onto the field.

Puglisi completed 7 of 13 passes for 109 yards and threw a 16-yard touchdown to freshman tight end Kaiden Prothro, the first touchdown of Prothro’s Georgia career. Puglisi eventually gave way to Ryan Montgomery, who produced another first when he connected with Jeremy Bell for a 54-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

Freshman running back Jae Lamar added an 11-yard touchdown later in the period.

Georgia’s defense was just as comfortable. The Bulldogs finished with seven tackles for loss and three sacks while allowing Tennessee State almost nothing on the ground or through the air. Freshman outside linebacker PJ Dean recorded 1.5 sacks in his college debut, one of several young players who received meaningful work once the outcome was settled.

There were imperfections. Georgia committed eight penalties for 85 yards, the sort of number that will become considerably more expensive when the opponent changes. A special-teams substitution problem also contributed to a botched field-goal attempt. Against Tennessee State, neither mattered. Against an SEC opponent, they eventually will.

That is the appropriate line to draw from an opener like this. Georgia did what a championship-level team is supposed to do against an opponent it had no business struggling with. That is not proof of anything larger, but failing to do it would have created questions the Bulldogs were happy to avoid.

The schedule will provide more demanding answers soon enough.

For one afternoon, Georgia got exactly what it needed: Stockton looked in command, Frazier looked explosive, the defense gave away almost nothing and the backups had most of the second half to turn a runaway into useful work.

There was no drama in Georgia’s opener.

That was probably the best thing about it.

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