Once again, we continue our series taking a look at the biggest plays from each of Georgia’s games during its national championship run.
In the Bulldogs’ 56-7 trouncing of Charleston Southern, there was once again no shortage of candidates.
However, compared to some of the others, this one was easy.
It happened on Georgia’s very first touchdown, when nose guard Jordan Davis finally was able to do what he told reporters all season he wanted to try: actually get to touch the football during the team’s goal line packages.
Davis played a prominent role in Georgia’s goal line, jumbo package offense throughout the year, but it was not until that game that he would experience the thrill of putting the ball in the end zone by scoring the first touchdown of his career.
The score, a 1-yard run in the first quarter, gave Georgia a quick 7-0 lead.
“We had been practicing that play this week,” Davis said. “In practice, we were saying, ‘Yeah, this is the one—this will get the crowd jumping.’”
That’s exactly what happened.
Following a 5-yard run by Zamir White to the CSU 2, Davis lined up in the backfield, taking the handoff before being knocked down at the one.
On the next play, Davis lined up as the left-side tight end, but bounced back behind Bennett, lunging in for the touchdown as the Sanford Stadium crowd went wild.
“(Todd) Monken said on the headphones if we got—I don’t remember what the play before was—but we thought we might score there. We didn’t score, and we said if we got inside the two, we'd do it, and as fate would have it, I think it was on the three,” head coach Kirby Smart said. “He didn’t hesitate, and he did it, but it was probably a little far out for the first one, and I thought he almost scored there. But Coach Monken decided to call it again. I figured they knew what was coming, but I don’t know if it mattered. He was going to get his. He was going to get that ball across the goal line any way he could.”
Bulldog fans were not the only ones thrilled with the outcome.
The Charlotte native was mobbed by teammates, as he became the first Bulldog defensive lineman to score a touchdown since Jalen Carter last year against Tennessee.
“It’s a commitment for them to go down and work on offense. Jalen told us he wanted to catch a pass, so we flexed him out and let Jordan get the ball. We worked on ball security with him this week,” Smart said. “To be honest, I didn’t think we’d get a chance. It was almost fate that he got the opportunity because we weren’t going to do it in the middle of the field. The opportunity arose. I thought it was a great idea, and he handled it well.”
Quarterback Stetson Bennett joked his only job was to make sure Davis knew what hand to have up first in order to take the ball.
The rest was going to be up to the 6-foot-6, 340-pound superstar.
“I was like just get him the ball, just make sure he doesn’t fumble the ball,” Bennett said. “Hopefully, nobody took a picture right when I was handing the ball off, because I looked pretty small.”
