Other than having to remember to make a reservation for a table, watching the Dawgs overseas wasn’t too difficult. And it was quite a relaxing experience, given how focused and aggressive both sides of the ball performed yesterday. Kirby and the staff were not going to allow a letdown to occur in Starkvegas, and although Mississippi State played sloppy and gifted Georgia with some timely and generous penalties, the team wasn’t given the game. They went in, took it, and sent a message to the cowbell waggers (and Horns) that this team has another gear they haven’t fully shown. On to the (abbreviated this week due to travel) bullets.

• I’m considering not starting my game watching until after the first series for Georgia’s opponents is over, since the defense doesn’t ever play well on that series.
• MSU is a fairly tough team to prepare for, but playing Tennessee earlier in the year must have helped. That said, the secondary was a mess for a few drives.
• It might require a second viewing but I thought Schumann brought more blitzes than in any other game this year. Most of the pressures seemed to work well getting Shapen and Taylor off their spots or running for dear life. Think the last 2 bullets are related.
• CJ Allen (as always) had some highlight reel hits, but he got run over by that freshman QB. That was a shocker.
• Other than some misses on the first drive, Gunner was terrific again. He’s starting to see more of the field before running, noting postgame he hit Delp as his third read at one point. This is the best news from the game.
• Stockton was 12/19 for 176 and 2 TDs in first half; he outgained MSU by himself.
• Speaking of Delp, that is a man possessed right now. He’s trucking safeties and taking on DEs. Perimeter blocking MVP now that Colbie is out.
• I counted 3-4 sacks, which was a revelation, but the refs stole a few by allowing 37 holding penalties to go uncalled. They didn’t care to call PI much either. I don’t blame them wanting to leave Starkville ASAP, but yeesh.
• Nate Frazier needs to watch the tape in this game on a loop. When he cuts once and goes, and there’s even decent blocking, he’s gone. The dancing reps aren’t doing anyone any good. So happy he’s turned a corner and got rewarded. That TD run was awesome.
• I know the size advantage was big with UGA’s OL vs State’s DL, but when Bobo realized after a couple of drives that simple man blocking would win the day, it was fun to watch those dudes go to work. And on the occasional zone plays, the big ugglies really seemed to have fun hitting those LBs and safeties at the second level. People were getting their asses MOVED. Freeling killed a guy on that Branch TD.
• How could Birmingham not see that Bell lost the ball after he was down? Feel like every game we ask for the SEC to do what the ACC is doing on replay.
• Speaking of Branch, that comeback route catch was sick. Don’t think he looked at the ball for even a half second. ESPN says he’s the 6th WR pick in the draft. There isn’t a better slot receiver in the country, Mickey.
• The DL definitely missed Jordan Hall. Ogboko struggles with down-to-down consistency and Miller can’t play all the time. Really need a late season charge from Griffin, but I worry he’ll have a freshman fade. Q had a great game when Shapen was in, just pinning his ears back without much worry about a scramble. The freshman sub changed the calculus on that a bit.
• Dominated the middle 8 (14-0, or 21-0 if you count the middle 9) with a stop on 4th and 5, a TD to end the half and 2 quick TDs in 3rd quarter. Sure looks nice when the guys execute.

So the big question remains whether the Dawgs are turning a corner or just played an average team. Texas fans are asking the same question. Handling their business is what this team had failed to do well this year, until yesterday. I have a feeling Georgia hasn’t showed all their cards and has something in store for Texas next week. I’ll be taking notes from the 10 yard line and can’t wait for my first game in person this year. Go Dawgs!

Tell me if you’ve heard this story before…Georgia plays rival conference opponent extremely close, makes a couple more plays in the 4^th quarter and wins another heart stopper. Sound pretty familiar? The only thing that would surprise me in our remaining games (outside of Charlotte) is a game not in doubt going into the 4^th quarter. I feel like every broadcast of 2025 Georgia Football should have a warning, “If you suffer from stomach ulcers, watching the 2025 Georgia Football team can produce dangerous abdominal discomfort, and even death in extreme cases.” I guess this is just what we’re going to do every game. On to the grades…   

Quarterback: B-

• How can I describe Gunner’s day? Uneven? I thought he was in line for a big day following our first drive, but things cooled off a lot…for a while. I think Gunner owns 50% of the blame for the interception…definitely not the most accurate throw in the world, but Thomas is good enough to catch that ball. The deep ball to Roldan (that’s right…Roldan) looked like it was there to be had with an accurate throw. There was an inaccurate throw to Delp that was going to be a major explosive…at a time we really could’ve used the momentum. In general, not Gunner’s most accurate day and didn’t give me vibes of “Ole Miss Gunner.” Also, saw some signs of early season Gunner where he looked tentative to pull the trigger. Last thing…anyone else notice that Gunner almost always rolls right when he feels pressure? I can recall one spin to the left that produced an easy catch and gain to Elyiss…but that’s it. As far as the good…made just enough plays in the second half to get some scores, and produced a game winning drive in the 4^th quarter. According to Kirby, Gunner made a check at the line for Chauncey’s go-ahead touchdown run…so credit to him for that. Gunner did enough to win…but not much more.     

Running Back: B-

• This group produced 112 yards on 23 carries…not a terrible average, but nothing that makes me want to stomp my feet and light a match. Frazier can’t seem to break any run for more than 8 yards and was very much contained overall. Chauncey had the best day and produced the game winner on an excellent run…great vision and made all the right cuts to take it to the house. McCray curiously had zero touches. We had a Dwight Phillips sighting for two early carries…never to be heard from again. For an offense that struggles to produce explosives, I have zero clue why the fastest guy on the team (and a player who showed effectiveness early in the season) is being used less than Cameron’s dad’s Ferrari. And finally, we’ve got to talk a little Cash Jones. I said it earlier in the year and I’ll say it again…I have nothing but respect for this dude. I just don’t understand why he would get 22 snaps (31% of our total)…more than Bowens, McCray and Phillips combined. Are the coaches just overthinking player usage based on a given week (2 weeks in this case) of practice? All those snaps to produce five yards on two receptions (to be fair, he did have a nice gain wiped out by a holding penalty)…I really don’t get it.    

Offensive Line – C

• Common theme…did not evoke memories of the Ole Miss game. Like the rest of the team, this group is game to game. Florida was able to get pressure on Gunner more than I would have preferred. We gave up 2 sacks and 4 TFL’s. Outside of the Bowens big run, the OL wasn’t giving the RB’s a lot of room to make plays, and from what I remember, our first down runs were not putting us in favorable down and distance situations. A bad first down snap completely wasted a possession. This was supposed to be as healthy as this group has been all season…just not a lot to show for it when you look at the game in totality. Question…is the musical chairs approach a good thing or a bad thing? I couldn’t tell you. I do know if we want to hang our hat on being a physical offensive team with a strong running game as the foundation, this group needs to play at higher level than Saturday.   

Receivers (WR’s + TE’s) – B

• For non-QB’s, Branch has to be the MVP of this team…guessing there will not be a lot of pushback on that comment. He’s quick, he can make people miss, he’s got acceleration to burn and plenty of top speed…been completely as advertised and we lose this game without him. Thomas atoned for his part in the interception by catching a touchdown pass in the 3^rd quarter. Dillon Bell made his catches count and snagged our first touchdown…which looked unbelievably easy. Lawson Luckie got the McCray treatment and didn’t have any touches, following a 3 TD performance against Ole Miss. Elyiss continues to make at least one contribution per game…and would love to see us scheme more plays his way. Delp had a nice 20-yard reception and positively destroyed Cormani McClain on Bowen’s drive extending 3^rd down run…pretty sure Kirby felt full release watching that block.     

Defensive Line – B

• Super bummer losing Jordan Hall on the opening drive…not sure what the prognosis is, but we need him back at 100% for this unit to be at its best. Good to see Ogboko out there beginning to make more plays…going to need that if Hall is out for a while. Baugh only ripped off one explosive run on the day, which isn’t too bad. I don’t put the long Lagway run on the DL…thought it was just a good play call in that situation that caught us completely off guard. Still not getting a lot of pressure from this group, which is disappointing. I was worried as hell when Florida was up 20-17 and driving…but our DL stepped up HUGE with a monster 4^th down stop…completely changed the momentum of the game. Better effort compared to the last time we saw this group against Ole Miss.

Linebackers – A-        

• CJ Allen has been playing his ass off and was a tackling machine on Saturday (13 total tackles)…team MVP on defense and not really close. Raylen Wilson chipped in with a big game of his own (8 total tackles…1/2 TFL), outside of a DPI call…which was a tough matchup for him to cover. Cole was hurt (hopefully nothing serious) and went out early. Quiet-ish days for Justin Williams and Quintavious Johnson…but didn’t do anything to hurt us from what I was seeing. Bottom line…contained the run, limited their passing game and played infinitely better on 3^rd down than we have for most of the year. I’ll take it.    

Defensive Backs – C+ (maybe a B-)

• This is one of those where the defensive stats don’t tell the whole story. We only gave up 166 yards passing, so you’d think a better grade is warranted. But, complete coverage bust on Florida’s first touchdown. Complete coverage bust on the infamous “was it a drop, or was it a catch” 3^rd down play on Florida’s final offensive possession (more in a minute). DPI in the endzone on Zion Branch to give Florida an eventual gimme TD. We lost our best Safety to a targeting call…and I think the officials got that one right according to the rule interpretation. Why am I open to a B-? I loved our final defensive play where we sent Aguero on a blitz and Ellis made a great individual, instinctive play to break up that pass (would’ve been cool if he turned it into a Pick 6)…really hope he’s feeling comfortable because you can see the ability. Also, I am a little sympathetic to the group for managing around injuries and having to play without KJ, Kyron and Demello at the end of the game…certainly wasn’t the disaster that was Ole Miss.         

Special Teams – B-

• Thorpedo picked a bad time to execute the worst punt of his career…led directly to a Florida TD right afterwards. To be fair, the rest of his punts were in the good to great range. Woodring nailed his only FG attempt, and it was an important one to get us to even going into the half. We did allow a semi-long Florida kick return, which is not fun to see when we are capable of touchbacks in almost every situation. Branch didn’t do much with his two kickoff return attempts. Not our best game of the year, but didn’t cost us a win either.                

Offensive Coaching – C+

• Not sure where everyone else is, but didn’t love it. I loved the first drive…beautifully scripted and put together some plays that allowed us to move the ball without having to rely on incredible individual efforts. The first drive of the second half was mostly a big play by Branch, but loved the design on the Thomas touchdown pass. Obviously, the game-winning drive was exciting and the coaches deserve credit for that as well. Here’s where I have issues…it felt WAY too hard for us to move the ball most of the game. We were a little stubborn and predictable with the running game…same can be said for Bobo falling back in love with the WR screen a little too much for my liking. It feels like we’re super content executing plays that have limited upside, but low risk. That leads to long drives and a lot of reliance on winning 3^rd down. We haven’t been great at long downfield shots this year, but we have seen glimpses of a good intermediate passing game…not sure why we don’t incorporate that more in these games. I don’t know…I just think our offensive philosophy gives us little margin for error, and requires perfect execution for 12-14 plays if we need to get into the endzone…just one man’s opinion. Case in point…we had the bad first down snap and were looking at 2^nd and 21…we hit them with an incredibly vanilla run that everyone saw coming and lose another yard…surely there was something over the middle they were giving us that could’ve generated 10+ yards and put us in a more manageable 3^rd down situation. Alright…now I’m just bitching.   

Defensive Coaching – B

• Major improvement from Ole Miss, right? We had some busts and penalties that helped them out, but for the most part, we made them earn the yards they got. After the Ole Miss disaster for 3 quarters, I said I would take a higher risk approach to get more stops, instead of playing soft and watching teams easily move the ball up and down the field…and I meant it. I didn’t see Lagway picking us apart and hitting wide open guys on the outside all afternoon. I didn’t see Florida hitting shallow crossing routes all afternoon. I’d love to see us figure out a way to get more pressure on QB’s, but our best pass rusher was unavailable for most of the game. I’m not crazy about coverage busts, but we were down our best Safety for most of the game and the other Safeties we have are not exactly 3-year starters. Let’s build off this and look to take another step forward next week.

Selective Officiating Outrage – A+

• For those outside of Bulldog nation, get over yourselves. All of you sound like a bunch of self-righteous jackasses. I thought all the bitching about the Auburn goal line fumble was bad enough…by the way, CJ punched the ball loose and the QB did not have control when the ball crossed the goal line. But all the outrage about the officials calling Sturdivant’s catch attempt as hitting the ground…it’s getting out of hand. Like others, I was at the game on Saturday and I can’t tell you why the broadcast didn’t show the best view of the replay, but it really wasn’t that big of a deal. When they showed a good front view of the replay on the scoreboard, I didn’t even worry about the call being overturned…completely clear that the ball bounced. Jesus, their coach even said he didn’t think it was a catch after the game (unless I’m getting fooled by some AI thing). Every college football media pundit with an X account believes Georgia gets favorable calls. Allow me to interject…we get called for more DPI than any team on earth. According to officials, our defensive line almost never gets held in 2025…seems a little curious. Cash Jones hits a chunk play and it gets wiped out by a Dillon Bell holding call…watch the play and explain those physics to me. Look, officials aren’t perfect and they’ll make some bad calls…some help us and some hurt us. Each favorable/unfavorable call affects the game in some way…regardless of when it occurs. Trust me, ask any Georgia fan how they feel about the Sanks “fumble” against Georgia Tech, ask them how they feel about Tyler Simmons being called offsides, ask them how they feel about the 2023 SECCG Bond “catch” on 4^th down. I promise, officials are the furthest thing from Dawg fans.   

Look forward to MSU this weekend…that’s a game we can easily lose if we don’t play well. Hope we can come out firing and get out to a comfortable early lead…but who the hell are we kidding?

Go Dawgs!   

Good one to watch.

And Coach 30 weighs in on Miami.

How do you say goodbye and thanks for nothing at the same time? Just run it through ChatGPT.

Auburn, that’s exactly what you deserved. I wonder if Hugh was using AI to call offensive plays this season, too?

I know that’s a lot of Auburn content for one day, but sometimes, there’s never enough to emphasize just how much the Barner world is the black hole of the college football world.

At least they have all those Championships now, amirite?

But it’s the officiating. Hmmm.

Just saying.

What did the Florida interim coach think?

It is what it is. If you ever told me that officiating would start going Georgia’s way, ever, I’d have called you a damned liar. Let’s also not forget that we’re only a year removed from this:

Let’s all put the (water) bottle down and start thinking clearly, please?

Between Tyler Simmons and Isaiah Bond, Kirby Smart could be that much closer to Saban-level Natties. Cry harder, people. You won’t get any sympathy from this side of the fence.

Ever.

Ain’t nothing better than fried gator tail, Refugees. That said, I may have to lay off the fried foods for a while because my heart tends to stop enough as it is during this season’s Georgia games. The Dawgs did their best to make Billy Gonzales look like a decent coach, but yet again locked it down when it mattered most. I’m still not sure if the team is good enough to make a deep run come playoff time, but they certainly can get there. That and beating all our old rivals again I’ll gladly take during a rebuilding year. On to the Cocktail Party bullets.

• This was the closest I’ve ever been to predicting a game script, until Gunner took that knee. I had it 31-20 with a 4th quarter score to ice it. Damnit, Kirby. Protect your betting fans better! 😉
• Speaking of Gunner, I figured he’d have a rough start with all the emotions of this game and venue mixed in, but he was really up and down all game. Some bad throws, some gems, some nice runs and a big blitz pickup he missed that almost turned the game around. Really happy for him and his family though to enjoy this victory.
• The offense mirrored Gunner overall, looking explosive and efficient at times running and passing, and constipated at other times. Florida has a good defense, but at least 3 of the drives we seemed to execute really poorly. That was disappointing coming off a bye week.
• I know Lagway came in with a lot of fanfare, but I actually think he’s going to be a bust. He struggles to read coverages and makes too many mental errors to be a big time QB. Sad!
• Speaking of busts, I don’t think I have anything more to say about Joenel Aguero and Jacory Thomas. I just wish we had better players to take their spots. With Demello going down and KJ out, I was really anxious about the outcome. Think we were lucky that Dallas Wilson went down first and that Lagway isn’t very smart. But I’m not sure we’re going to ever see a good secondary this year.
• I thought the targeting call on KJ was technically correct in terms of crown of the helmet contact to the head area, but there didn’t seem to be a launching of his body. There are so many different parts to that rule that maybe I’m misinterpreting it, but that one felt like it should’ve been a 15 yard penalty without an ejection.
• As for the other referee calls, some close ones again yesterday. I agreed with the Gunner incomplete pass vs. fumble and I wasn’t sure about the Sturdivant catch, just really happy and relieved that they called it incomplete on the field. I just wanted a frontal view, but they never showed it. The Gunner clapping call was ridiculous. Maybe he should clap like Kirby takes timeouts?
• Also, on UF’s 4th drive there were 3 DPI or holding penalties that went uncalled. Is there a good SEC ref crew?
• Worst punt of Thorson’s career put the defense in a bad spot and cost the Dawgs an early lead. Just goes to show how narrow the margins are this year. Thankfully, he recovered with a 66 yard boomer late in the game. 
• As always, this game was one of momentum swings. The first half had our crappy second drive, Big Baby’s injury, the coverage bust, then Noah Thomas missing Gunner’s poor pass leading to a pick, and another coverage bust. That energized the Gators, and the Dawgs spiraled into a lot of mistakes.
• I really loved our running scheme and execution in the first half, lots of play action and looks to the TEs. Just seems like that’s a rhythm that suits Gunner and the team well. And then we went away from it for a quarter. At one point we had -7 rushing yards in the second half.
• Zachariah Branch, MVP. The last 3 games he’s had 27 catches for 240 yards, tons of critical first downs and 73 jock straps left on the field. What a weapon.
• CJ and Raylen did their second half thing again, and along with Branch’s jump cuts, are my favorite parts of the season to watch thus far. Think the most entertaining defensive play was the swarm tackle from them and Daylen on one of Lagway’s ill-timed scrambles. That said, Schumann has to leave them in more because when 30 came in Lagway had his easy TD run.
• I used to like Joe Tessitore. But after his 936 meaningless references to the playoff in the Tech game last year, and him openly rooting for Florida last night, I’m done. When you make Aaron Rodgers’ brother (a noted UGA hater) sound reasonable, you need to dial back on the caffeine and let the football people handle the calls. Maybe boxing is your best sport, after all.
• Could there be a more Gator move in this game than to tackle a returner who calls a fair catch? Branch was so pissed that he immediately broke off a 42-yard reception on their asses.
• Great contested catch by Noah Thomas for the TD. Gunner pump-faked to Branch and the whole defense went there. Maybe needed a little more pace on the ball, but Noah took care of it. Need him to continue to ball out with Colbie gone.
• The DL really struggled when Hall went out. That remains my biggest concern going forward. Elijah Griffin didn’t do much in his first Cocktail Party game, other than help stop the 4th and 1. He’s got to step up more.
• Delp had maybe his worst game of the year – missed blocks, drops, and penalties – but then sealed the deal with an excellent block for Gunner on the game clinching run.
• Chauncey Bowens was curiously absent in the first few drives, but he came on strong and had a glorious game-winning TD, running away from the Gator defense like Gunner did against Ole Miss. Nate did fine but can’t seem to break away from the second level of the defense of late. Can’t wait for him to improve his vision and bust one.

Kirby’s facial expressions in the postgame presser were as exasperated and exhilarated as I felt watching the game. For as much attention that Gonzales got for calling “Corch Irvin Meyers” for advice during their off week, Florida’s gameplan was pretty Mickey Mouse, and “Percy Harvey” and “Tim Tivo” were not walking through that door. Georgia played with its food again and made a lot of errors, but weird shit always happens in Jacksonville, and as a 90s student I’ll never take a win there for granted. Also, all our rivals lost yesterday, which should bring a broad smile to everyone’s faces. Lastly, the low key best thing that happened yesterday is that Mississippi State finally won an SEC game. I was worried they were going to put everything into our game next week, but now hopefully they’ll have a big letdown and we can whip them. I’m gonna be out of the country for that game, but I’ll do my best to find it at a pub so I can do a write-up of another win. Go Dawgs, and FTMF!

I’m going to leave this here without commentary.