Stats Crunch (2021 G-Day)

G-Day has come and gone, but we've managed to collect a few statistical observations.

JT Daniels had himself quite the day. The gunslinger went 28-for-41 for 324 yards and three touchdowns. The last quarterback to throw for over 300 yards on G-Day was Jacob Eason, when he threw for 311 in 2017. Daniels threw for over 400 yards in his first real game for the Dawgs last November. So throwing for this many in his first G-Day isn’t that crazy.

What is crazy, in my opinion, is that he threw the ball 41 times. Only five times under Kirby Smart has a Bulldog quarterback thrown 40 or more times in a game, and only one of those came in a Georgia win. Here are those five games (WARNING: some of these are painful).

The most pass attempts Daniels has thrown in a game for Georgia is 38 (twice). He threw it at least 40 times in a game twice with Southern Cal, his previous school (both losses), including 51 times against Notre Dame in 2018.

Carson Beck went 22-for-31 for 236 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. In the last G-Day (back in 2019), Stetson Bennett had the most yards passing, with 210. He threw for both teams that day, as he had 128 for the red and 82 for the black. On Saturday, Bennett had 54 yards on 3-of-4 passing. Brock Vandagriff was 6-for-9 passing for 47 yards, while Jackson Muschamp rounded out the signal-callers, going 1-for-2 for 19 yards.

Most of those passes went to running backs—something that hasn’t happened too much as of late. Adonai Mitchell led the Dawgs with seven receptions, but the next four highest reception totals belonged to running backs. James Cook and Zamir White each had six, followed by Kendall Milton and Daijun Edwards with five apiece. Could Georgia use this as a valuable weapon in 2021? Here are the reception totals for Dawg running backs under Kirby.

Speaking of the running backs, I did find one stat quite odd. Last season, Georgia had 51 rushing plays that went for ten yards or more. In fact, in the four previous seasons (all full seasons), the Bulldogs have averaged 99.5 rushing plays a season that went for ten yards or more.

But during the 2021 G-Day, only Vandagriff (13) and Beck (12) had rushing plays for more than ten yards. White, Cook, Milton, and Edwards all had highs of nine yards.

Only one time under Kirby has Georgia failed to have a ten-yard gain on the ground, and that was during the 2016 Florida game. Jacob Eason had the longest rush for the Bulldogs that day, with eight, followed by Nick Chubb’s seven. The only other time the Bulldogs did this in the last 25 seasons was in the 2009 game against LSU.

Generally, spring statistics don’t mean much. In 2017, Georgia averaged 1.4 yards an attempt on 45 attempts in the spring game. During that season, the Bulldogs ran pretty well, as they averaged 5.8 yards an attempt and had 115 carries for ten yards or more.

In terms of defense, Quay Walker led the way with eight tackles. Ameer Speed and Javon Bullard each had seven. The Bulldogs had six “sacks” on the day and were led by Devonte Wyatt’s two. There were also two interceptions by the Dawgs defense. Dan Jackson (you may have learned about him from Jason Butt’s piece last week ) and the other by Lewis Cine.

In the last two seasons combined, Georgia’s defense has registered 17 interceptions by eight different players. Cine and Latavious Brini are the only two returning players for 2021 from that group. Cine had his in the 2019 Arkansas State game; Brini in the same season against Murray State. Newly acquired transfer Tykee Smith has four career interceptions all with the West Virginia Mountaineers.