Wednesday ‘Dawg Bites Says Let’s Hear It For The Boy

Welcome to Wednesday, Bulldog Fans! It’s Game Week once again! At least we’re within the 7 day period before the Georgia Bulldogs take the field for the last time this wonderful college football season.

The disappointment in the fanbase after the SEC Championship Game was understandable. Pointing fingers at the lack of a pass rush, apparent confusion in the secondary, subpar run blocking, inability to finish drives, and costly turnovers were also understandable. Questioning if Stetson Bennett IV can win football games was not. The annals are littered with 5 star quarterbacks that lost multiple games to Alabama under Nick Saban. Our QB1 just happens to have taken a different road. But that road took him through Miami this weekend and a stellar performance against a vaunted defense stocked with NFL 1st round draft picks. What can one say, except let’s hear it for the boy!

(There’s actually football in the video if you are patient.)
Now onto news and notes.

If you thought the only thing that Jim Harbaugh and Steve Spurrier had in common was your personal dislike, we can double your pleasure. News outlets are reporting that Harbaugh, having been beaten down by the University of Georgia football team last week, is quitting as coach of his current school. We’ve been previously labeled as Running Back U, and Tight End U, we can now add Make Your Coach Quit U. And it’s always 10:26 in Ann Arbor.

Winning the Orange Bowl and making the National Championship Game is certainly something to add to the CV for every Georgia football coach and assistant. It obviously doesn’t hurt one’s Adjusted Gross Income either. So making the SEC championship is worth a 15% bonus, and winning it is only an additional 5%...I think that may be the problem. Especially if just making the College Football Playoffs has its own reward. Interesting is that Scott Cochran is apparently eligible for the bonus pool even though he was absent from the team for more than half the season. And that the compensation committee decided they would let USC and UF provide Will Muschamp the bonuses instead of the UGAA.

I don’t keep up with the Trade School off-season much, but I did hear that their 2021 starting quarterback Jeff Sims is in the transfer portal and one time starter Jordan Yates is leaving via the graduate transfer option. On the heels of announcing that former Akron Zips signal caller Zach Gibson is moving to North Avenue, the Yellow Jackets have signed Chris Weinke as their quarterbacks coach.

The Georgia Men’s Basketball team opened up SEC play against 11-2 Texas A&M Tuesday night. Without spoiling the end, the teams entered the contest with the Aggies holding a turnover margin of +8 vs. UGA, and a scoring margin of +17. Really, how did you think it was gonna turn out?

In actuality, the Dawgs stormed back from a double-digit halftime deficit to get it to single digits the last 5 minutes of the game. With some typical sloppy play, little defensive rebounding, empty possessions, and inexplicable shot selections, the Aggies moved it to a 2 possession game late. And just as inexplicably, a timely 3 tied the score with just over 30 seconds left. Scrappy defense led to a foul, aTM made the foul shots to go up by 2, and the ‘Dawgs had the ball with 11 seconds and a chance to tie or win the game. Oquendo inbounds, gets it back, and with heavy contact drives to make the layup and get fouled with 5.5 on the clock. He makes the layup (first lead of the night), but lets Aggie Marcus Williams saunter up to the 3 point line and can a 3 pointer with 0.9 seconds left. Georgia doesn’t get a clean look before the buzzer, and loses 81-79. Very Nebraska football/Scott Frost of us, don’t you think? #bringjonashome

The Georgia Women’s Basketball team faces Kentucky Wednesday night in Lexington. Coach Taylor’s #15 ranked Lady Dawgs lost their conference opener against LSU last Thursday, but stormed back and beat the Gators Sunday afternoon. Contributing to the effort is the back-to-back SEC Freshman of the Week, Jillian Hollingshead. The 6’5” frosh from Powder Springs is averaging 6.5 points and 3.4 boards per contest, living up to the hype as a 2021 McDonald’s All-American.

There’s not much coming out of either Athens or Indianapolis at the moment, which I imagine will change shortly. At least for the Bulldogs, I hope it continues to be the mundane projections and comparisons. Of course if ‘Bama backer Will Anderson leaves for South Pacific missionary work, or Bryce Young and his backup, decide to try the transfer portal, I wouldn’t mind breaking away from binging The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel to post an article or two. But stay tuned. You never know, and as always...

GO ‘DAWGS!!!