In what was a pretty blissful and uncomplicated start to the 2026 season, Georgia manhandled a terrible opponent yesterday with ruthless efficiency and explosiveness. And they covered the spread, as they should have, but rarely do in these spots. Other than that, no real surprises occurred and nothing was really learned either, other than maybe the coaches were sandbagging on Talyn Taylor’s fall camp. As we all know, TSU had no shot of staying close to the Dawgs. The only stakes were how deep into the bench Kirby was able to go. On to the bullets!

• The best part of the game was realizing there might be some good receivers on this team. Talyn Taylor and Craig Dandridge are different. Canion had a slow start but should improve with more time in the system.
• The tight ends are a parade of athletic marvels. Jaden Reddell, Elyiss Williams, and Kaiden Prothro are aliens. Blocking was incredible from these guys as well, including a great block by Elyiss on Talyn’s TD.
• When was the last time you saw 4 QBs play for one team in a game? A first for me.
• The defense smothered a terrible TSU offense with unadulterated speed and toughness. I’m sure Schuman wanted the shutout, but 3 points ain’t bad.
• Harris and Cole dominated the edges of the defense and the young guys looked promising as well (Dean, Brooks, Ikinnagbon). Dean looks like a shorter Gabe Harris before he built his body up.
• Nice to see Nate Frazier cash in on some relatively easy TDs. The OL barely strained and made holes the size of minivans.
• Was very relieved Bowens was ok after that hit to the knee, and then he took 3 more to the same knee. Tough kid.
• Offense and defense was super vanilla, and we screened them to death, but I wasn’t expecting anything else.
  Gunner still looks good on the run and seems better with progressions, and his only mistake was missing Talyn on the deep ball and forced it into Canion who was covered.
• Sacovie White-Helton looks quicker and flashed well on special teams.
• Speaking of special teams, gah, that FG unit is gonna have a rough week with coach Benedict. What a mess.
• Other than that, the only thing one could criticize was JJA’s stupid penalties.
  The crowd seemed energetic and into the game well into the second half. I was impressed, given the heat. Good job on the fans that made the environment more than it probably should have been.
• 2 huge hits from the starting safeties told TSU the Dawgs weren’t playing around. Sending a message to future opponents as well.
• Nothing made me happier than Jeremy Bell laying the wood on the TSU DB on that 4th quarter end around, only to be rewarded with a beautiful throw from Montgomery for a TD. Especially after the tragedy his family just went through.

All in all, every goal was met. No injuries, no heatstroke, win comfortably, lots of game reps for backups, most everyone played well. Good teams win, great teams cover. The preseason continues next week against Western Kentucky, a much better team than TSU, but another overmatched opponent. Let’s hope for a similar outcome before the trip to Fayettenam. Go Dawgs!

We’ve come to the final installment of the 4 Questions of the 2026 Season. Thanks for all the comments and participation thus far. I think we’re all finally getting excited about the game tomorrow, regardless of how hot it will be in Sanford Stadium at 3pm ET (extremely) or what happens in Baton Rouge and Birmingham today (gah). For this topic, I went big picture.

Can Kirby Smart’s strategy of retention and development still produce a national champion?

So much has changed over the last several years in college football, with exorbitant amounts of money being paid to schools, coaches, and now players. There are no rules, winning is the only rule. Kirby has always been great at in-game strategy micro adjustments and outside the lines macro adjustments. He may move less quickly than some want on some things, but often he sees around corners fans can’t. But the rules of acquiring talent have changed so much and so fast that it’s fair to ask whether the Kirby process is still the best way to win championships.

Georgia has had chances to sign elite QBs, RBs, WRs, DEs, and DBs during times when they needed them and decided to bow out of the bidding wars. To date, it hasn’t hurt their chances of winning the SEC, and maybe with a healthy Beck and a non-Superman performance by Chambliss they make the national championship game the last two years. But the entire sport has leveled at the top where UGA once reigned supreme. Georgia has fallen back a little into a muddled top-10 picture that used to be a top-3 or -4. If they had spent on 1-2 more elite portal guys, would that have been enough? Hard to say.

Kirby has clearly recognized a gap and implemented one big change this year. The seasons are longer now, as teams can play up to 17 games. Does beating the living shit out of each other through fall camp and 3 days a week during the season still make sense, or does resting your stars and seniors have value? It seems like Kirby has decided on the latter, at least during camp, which I think is prudent. Keep the guys fresher for longer, limit injuries, etc. Bloody Tuesdays can still happen to keep the team tougher than the competition.

I’ve said it several times now, but this is almost a national championship roster with a national championship schedule. It’s all laid out as well as it could be, in these times. Stay healthy and get some high level play from a wideout or two and this team can win it all. Losing Amaris Williams sucked, but maybe he can play come January. That was an example of paying for a transfer. I just hope passing on the elite WRs and Safety options they had last winter don’t come back to bite them. If it does, it will be a huge missed opportunity and I think Kirby/Georgia will need to adjust further.

Thats all for now. I’ll have a postgame analysis of the beatdown from Section HD on Sunday morning. Go Dawgs!