Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com SEPT. 23, 2019 33 college football world, considering Georgia made the national champi- onship game two years ago and won 11 games last season. But before any new top recruiting classes arrive, Georgia will have to get through the rest of the 2019 sea- son, which includes hosting Notre Dame Sept. 21. So far, the No. 3-ranked Bulldogs have handled their opponents with ease. They kicked off the year with a 30-6 victory on the road against Vanderbilt, followed by a 63-17 shel- lacking of Football Championship Subdivision foe Murray State and a 55-0 blanking of Arkansas State. OFFENSE It's difficult to get too much of a read on Georgia after these wins given the quality of opponent, but it's clear that the prime feature of the team is its dominating run game, which starts with the offensive line — the preseason favorite to win the Joe Moore Award. "They average about 325 to 330 pounds across the offensive front," Dasher said. "It's a big, athletic of- fensive line. And yes, they're going to try to utilize those guys and really establish a run game, not just against Notre Dame. "That's their bread and butter — to establish the run, go play-action pass and work off of that." The line is led by left tackle An- drew Thomas, a 2018 first-team All- American according to SI.com. Many draft analysts project him as a top-10 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. The rest of the line consists of sev- eral future pros and former high four- and five-star recruits. Georgia will likely utilize a four- man rotation at running back, led by junior D'Andre Swift. In the first two games of the season, Swift ran for 216 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. He had just one reception for nine yards, but he is a threat to catch the ball out of the backfield. Last season, he had 32 catches for 297 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for 1,049 yards and 10 scores. "Swift is a do-it-all kind of guy. He's not the biggest guy," Dasher said. "He's about 5-10, 210 pounds, but has breakaway speed and he can run between the tackles." The other backs are senior Brian Herrien plus sophomores Zamir White and James Cook. If the Irish want to have a chance to win this game, they must perform better against the run than they did against Louisville in week one. One area where Georgia's recruit- ing hasn't resulted in much depth is at the quarterback position. Since the 2016 class, five scholarship quarter- backs have enrolled at Georgia, but only two are on the team and active. Five-star quarterbacks Jacob Eason (Washington) and Justin Fields (Ohio State) transferred, while freshman Dwan Mathis is unable to play due to offseason surgery to remove a cyst from his brain. The team still has Jake Fromm, who has been Georgia's starter since the 2017 game at Notre Dame Sta- dium. From his freshman to sopho- more year, he steadily improved his accuracy, going from a completion percentage of 62.2 in 2017 to 67.4 in 2018. After two games this season, his completion percentage is up to 73.5, but his yards per attempt have re- mained roughly the same, which is part of the reason why many Georgia fans have criticized him for being a game manager. "It's like any other team," Dasher said. "Your quarterback is going to be the center of attention and Geor- gia fans, they look at what Tua [Ta- govailoa] is doing at Alabama, they look at Trevor Lawrence [at Clemson] and see all the big, long, pretty touch- down passes and all the points being scored. "And those are the guys that Jake is going to be compared to every sin- gle time." Former walk-on Stetson Bennett is the team's backup quarterback. While he appears to have improved, Dasher still thinks the Bulldogs are in trouble if anything happens to Fromm. The primary concern for this team on offense is probably its inexpe- rienced receiver corps. After two games, bright spots have been tight end Eli Wolf, a transfer from Tennes- see; wide receiver Demetris Robert- son, who was heavily recruited by Notre Dame; and five-star freshman wideout George Pickens. First-year offensive coordinator Jim Chaney appears to be working to get Wolf the ball by lining him up in the slot. After two games, Chaney had 84 yards on five catches, good for 16.8 yards per reception. Robertson led the team with six receptions, while Dasher noted that Pickens has made some of the most spectacular catches he has seen in his more than 20 years of covering Georgia football. DEFENSE Georgia runs a 3-4 defense, where the Jack linebacker stands up near the line of scrimmage and moves around, trying to run through gaps to create havoc and get to the quar- GAME PREVIEW: GEORGIA Facts & Figures NOTRE DAME AT GEORGIA Game Info Date: Sept. 21, 2019 Site: Sanford Stadium (93,246) Kickoff: 8 p.m. ET Television: CBS Radio: This broadcast can be heard live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (channel 129) and on Notre Dame's IMG affiliates. Series Facts: This will be the third all-time meeting between the two programs, with Georgia leading the series 2-0. Head Coaches: Georgia — Kirby Smart (35-10, fourth season); Notre Dame — Brian Kelly (83-35, 10th season). Noting Georgia: The Bulldogs defeated the Fighting Irish 17-10 in the Sugar Bowl following the 1980 season to secure the national championship, and also won 20-19 at Notre Dame Stadium in 2017 … Georgia has captured 13 SEC titles, with the last one coming in 2017 … In the Bulldogs' last four recruit- ing classes (from 2016-19), they have signed 16 five-star players … Over the past two seasons, Georgia has posted a record of 24-5 … Smart is one of 11 head coaches at schools from Power Five conferences that are coaching at their alma maters … Since Smart took over in 2016, Georgia has won seven con- tests (four against ranked foes) in which it was tied or trailing in the fourth quarter … The Bulldogs have racked up 11 scores (10 touchdowns and one safety) on defense and special teams since 2016.