2021 UGA Football: Week Four

UGA Instant Analysis 

Week 4: W @Vandy; 4-0

Good teams win — great teams cover huge spreads. While Georgia comfortably covered a five touchdown line, I don’t know how much we really learned for the second straight week. It was a great opportunity to see some more depth in action, but Georgia did miss a chance to improve on one area of concern: short yardage/goal line.

Special teams gets the first spot today, but like last week, no unit played poorly. In fact, Podlesny continued to encourage me and the kickoff team almost scored a touchdown following a forced fumble. I have no issues with special teams play, but want to continue to point out the impact of starting defensive players and offensive skill players on special teams. These guys want to be out there and they make a tremendous impact on the flow of the game. Potential first round picks like Adam Anderson and Nolan Smith are out there busting their tails on kickoff, so let that be a lesson to young guys who think they’re too good for special teams. A player deserving of a shoutout is Robert Beal; Beal was a top recruit out of Norcross a few years back, and while his recruiting stars were a little too lofty, he stayed patient and remained a quality team player, and now makes a tremendous impact on special teams and defense. That takes a lot of humility and love for teammates and speaks highly of his personal character.

Offense gets the second spot today, but if the #1s played the entire game they might be on top. I think that starting unit could put up 100 in that game. Luckily they weren’t in much passed the first quarter and we got to see some of the quality #2s. Brock Bowers continues to impress, Ladd McConkey played his guts out, and the tailbacks looked healthy and versatile. JT was nearly perfect and continues to look more comfortable every week, which will payoff against an aggressive Arkansas team next week. My offensive concern (outside the immobility at QB) lies in goal line situations; the offensive line struggled so far to get push on 4th down and near the end zone. Even with that concern, the offensive line played excellent in pass pro — if I get some time I’ll pull up the film and show picture perfect protection against multiple twists. The o-line is very young but extremely athletic and they are growing every week. Broderick Jones got a ton of reps at left tackle today and looked pretty good. His depth is important moving forward but he’s also expected to step up next season, so it’s great seeing him and many others get live work. A lot of these kids are starters on other teams, but national champion teams have depth like this and Coach Smart does a wonderful job keeping depth and working these players in practice to show why it’s not always important to go somewhere “you can play right away”.

Defense comes out on top once again and here is why:

Drive 1 - 3&out

Drive 2 - 3&out

Drive 3 - interception

Drive 4 - 3&out

And it continued like that for 60 minutes. Overall the defense held Vandy to 77 yards on the stat sheet. 77. Multiple turnovers, strong against the run, and a little more sound against the deep ball, although Vandy rarely had time to throw. That is the key to next week’s game — Arkansas loves to throw the deep ball to Treylon Burks and they are good at it. As for this week, the defense was outstanding and deserves praise. Another play I will highlight on film when I get time is the very first play of the game. Nolan Smith, who at this point y’all know I love, demonstrated textbook edge-setting and even made the tackle after throwing off a blocker. The following play we got to see another workhorse in Jalen Carter manhandle an interior lineman to make a tackle for loss. If not for Jordan Davis, Carter would be household name, and he will have his time next season since he’s only a sophomore. His combination of size, quickness, and ESPECIALLY hand placement is tough to beat. The following play, true freshman Kelee Ringo had a nice pass breakup and the Dawgs immediately set the tone for the game. Next week will be the toughest challenge offensively of the season until Florida, so hopefully the Dawgs are well rested and ready to work this week at practice. 

Since this week was pretty uneventful, I’ll add a note a little outside the normal topics. I finished Kirk Herbstreit’s new book “Out of the Pocket” this week and was extremely impressed. I was never his biggest fan, although I never disliked him, but after hearing his story and his family struggles growing up, along with the adversity he overcame in college, I gained a tremendous amount of respect for him. I highly recommend this book to any football fans, especially college football, and really appreciate his openness and honesty in the stories he shared. I feel I’m man enough to admit when I’m wrong, certainly I was wrong about Florida State being decent this season, but Kirk’s story proved me wrong about him and I’ll enjoy Gameday a little more now. 

Big game next week, probably should be the Gameday game since I brought it up (it is only halftime of that game though), and I’m looking forward to Georgia welcoming back a fantastic coach in Sam Pittman who built a tough team in Arkansas.

As always — Go Dawgs.