This upcoming week is going to be one of great consequence for the Georgia Bulldogs. Both the short term, the remainder of the 2020 season, and the long term, 2021 and beyond, will be impacted. Recruiting, Mississippi State, and of course the future of the quarterback position are all going to be impacted in the week to come for the Dawgs.
First, we’ll touch on recruiting. It appears that the Georgia coaching staff used the postponement of the Missouri game to their advantage in the world of recruiting. Several 2022 and 2023 prospects from historically talent laden high school programs receiving offers over the weekend. Those will be broken down in greater detail later in the week, but this week it’s all about 2021 linebacker and 5-Star freak athlete Smael Mondon. The Paulding County standout is set to make his decision on Wednesday, and Georgia is thought by many to be the leader here, but truthful Mondon has kept his recruitment close to the vest. Georgia, Auburn, and Tennessee are all in play, but the Dawgs could get a midweek shot in the arm for the current recruiting cycle if Mondon stays in state.
On top of a potential midweek recruiting victory, Georgia will look to put an actual ‘W’ in the record books for the 2020 season against Mississippi State. The Dawgs should be chomping at the bit to play after Missouri’s COVID contact tracing woes forced the postponement of last week’s scheduled tilt in Columbia. Now, the Dawgs will hope that the Bulldogs of Starkville are COVID clear as they had to postpone their contest last week due to their own problems with the pandemic. Georgia should’ve gotten a chance to heal up, as they were very banged up after the Florida game, and it’ll certainly be interesting to see how Kirby Smart and Dan Lanning’s defense matches up with the Air-Raid attack of Mike Leach.
Finally, the 64 million dollar question. Who will be the quarterback for Georgia this week? Stetson Bennett IV seemed to be relenquishing the role of starting quarterback after separating his shoulder versus Florida. It was tough to tell how much of that was injury related and how much was related to the potential and preparpedness of other quarterbacks. It was widely speculated that JT Daniels was on track to make his Georgia debut, and some even those Carson Beck was going to see the field. However, with Bennett IV having had a weekend off to heal, it’ll be interesting to see how the battle plays out this week. If Daniels does make the start, it’ll not on impact the game versus Mississippi State, but also a strong performance could help Daniels begin building a hold on the job for the remainder of 2020 and momentum heading into 2021.
A lot on tap for those whose blood runs red and black this week.