After blowing out Vanderbilt, Georgia looked ahead to its following game against Arkansas with a lot of anticipation.
Coached by former Georgia offensive line coach Sam Pittman, the Razorbacks were the early darling of the SEC after beating Texas A&M and traveled to Georgia hoping to use the Bulldogs as another stepping stone.
That did not happen.
Georgia rolled to an easy 37-0 win in the top-10 matchup as the Bulldog defense posted its second shutout in as many games.
Once again, the game saw no shortage of big plays by Kirby Smart’s squad but was a huge special teams contribution by none other than Dan Jackson and Zamir White that had people talking about this game long after it was completed.
Already up 14-0, Georgia’s defense had Arkansas pinned down near its own goal line for the second straight time.
This time, the Bulldogs would not set up a return.
Credit Jackson for that.
The walk-on safety crashed through the line, blocked the punt. The ball rolled backwards into the end zone, where White recovered it, extending Georgia’s lead to 21-0 with 2:17 left before half. The route was on.
Head coach Kirby Smart gave Bulldog fans the credit for the play.
“I thought our crowd impacted the blocked punt in terms of cadence and things like that, which forced the touchdown,” Smart said after the game. “So, I give our fans at least 10 points, and that’s big.”
The play was part of a big day for White, who rushed 16 times for 68 yards, and also scored a pair of rushing touchdowns for the Bulldogs, who improved to 5-0.
It also marked the second time in as many years that White was involved in a big special teams play against the Razorbacks.
In the 2020 season-opener in Fayetteville, White partially blocked a punt that went 9 yards and gave the Bulldogs possession at the Arkansas 24.
After the game, Smart praised both White and Jackson.
“Zamir takes so much pride in it. You have to stay after practice two times a week and work on punt block,” Smart said. “Well, for a guy that’s been here four years, that’d be so easy for him to say, ‘Well I don’t want to do that. I want to get off the field and go inside.' But he stays out there and works on punt block because that’s his unit.”
As for Jackson, Smart could not praise him enough during his post-game press conference.
“Daniel Jackson is the most untold story on our team. The guy came from I don't know where, walk-on. He runs a 4.5 all of sudden his freshman year. Where did we get this guy?” Smart said. “He's a good football player. Doesn't play but he's out there. Then spring rolls around and we have a mass exodus of DBs, eight to be exact. So, he went from 16th to 8th in one semester. And then he worked his way from 8th to 6th. And then he worked his way to fifth and then he goes and blocks a punt. All he does is give everything he's got every single day.”
