G-Day 2019: Quick Hits
It wasn’t quite “93K Day”, but plenty of Georgia fans braved the cold and rain to catch their first glimpse of the 2019 version of the Georgia Bulldogs.
Outside of a couple long completions, and a 39 yard touchdown pass from wideout Matt Landers to QB D’Wan Mathis, defense ruled the day.
A few notes on the game:
- At first glance it would seem that Jake Fromm had a down day. The junior QB completed 14 passes on 26 attempts for just 116 yards in the first half, including a touchdown to go along with a pick-six. That being said, the offensive play calling was even more vanilla than most predicted. The offenses maybe ran 5 different pass plays, and the defense rarely came out of a Cover-2 Shell look. Fromm did throw some bad balls, but I’m assuming those are ones he’ll toss away during actual games. More likely, all quarterbacks were probably instructed not to throw balls away, but rather put them in the air so wideouts and DBs can get some work.
- Georgia seems to have solidified a few positions:
- The secondary consisted of: Richard LeCounte and JR Reed at safeties, Tyson Campbell and Eric Stokes at the boundary corners, and Mark Webb and William Poole rotating at nickel. This group had the best day out of any. Campbell got burned on a couple of comebacks, but was solid. Stokes, who came on strong last season, defected multiple passes and picked off Jake Fromm’s second pass of the day, returning it for the first score of the game.
- Brian Herrien was the clear number 2 back, behind Swift. Herrien ran tough, as always, and looked dangerous catching the ball out of the backfield.
- The 1st team offensive line lined up as follows: LT Andrew Thomas – LG Solomon Kindley – C Trey Hill – RG Ben Cleveland – RT Isaiah Wilson.
- One pleasant surprise was seeing freshman Nakobe Dean playing with the 1st team defense. He had earned a ton of praise all spring, and showed why today. He was a menace in the run game, and got after Fromm on a couple of different occasions.
Local Notes:
- Stetson Bennett (Pierce County) had the best day of any QB, 12-23 for 210 yards, including a forty yard strike to JJ Holloman in the 4th. He appears to clearly be number 2 on the depth chart, but freshman D’Wan Mathis will push him.
- Nolan Smith (IMG Academy – Savannah) was another freshman who garnered praise this spring. Smith, as well as fellow newcomer Jermaine Johnson, were a part of the outside linebacker rotation for the 1st team defense.
- Demetris Robertson (Savannah Christian) did not compete due to an illness.
- Warren McClendon (Brunswick High) rotated in at RT with the Black offense.
- Jack Podlesny (Glynn Academy) made his only field goal attempt of the day.