Georgia will play its final home game of the season on Saturday as the Bulldogs take on Vanderbilt. A December home game in Athens is pretty rare. The first time it happened was in 1923 when Georgia tied Centre College 3-3, and the last time was in 2001 (a game moved after the events of 9/11) when they defeated Houston. The Bulldogs are 3-0 at Sanford Stadium this season, and another win will make them perfect at home for the third season in five tries under Kirby Smart. Georgia is 30-7 all-time against Vanderbilt in Athens.
Georgia has a 58-20-2 advantage over Vanderbilt in the series, but actually trailed 1-8-1 after the first ten meetings. The first meeting was in 1893 and was the first time Georgia played outside its home state (two in Athens and one in Atlanta). Georgia’s 58 victories are the fourth most against any opponent, as you see below.
Kirby Smart is 3-1 all-time as head coach against Vanderbilt (4-0 as a player). After last week’s win over South Carolina, Smart now has 50 Ws for his career. He's one of five Georgia head coaches with at least 50 wins with the Bulldogs. Only Mark Richt, reached the 50-total quicker with the Dawgs. The number in the next column represents the victories over top ten teams to reach that magic number.
Of those 50 wins by Smart, nine have come against top-ten opponents. Vince Dooley had seven top-ten wins in his first 50, while Richt had three and Wally Butts had two. The AP Poll did not start until 1936.
After running for a net total of eight yards against Mississippi State, Georgia rushed for a season-high 332 yards. The Bulldogs' previous high this season was 215 at Kentucky. The 332 against this season’s Gamecock team was the fifth most by a Kirby Smart-led team.
Last week’s balanced attack makes our weekly chart of Georgia’s running game by quarter more interesting. Four running backs had at least 75 yards on the ground (James Cook, Zamir White, Kenny McIntosh, and Daijun Edwards). In recent seasons, the Bulldogs had as many as three players with over 75 in a game as Sony Michel, Nick Chubb, and Brian Herrien did it against South Carolina in 2016.
In addition, James Cook scored his first two rushing touchdowns this season. He had two in his freshman season and two in his sophomore season, and now two more as a junior. He also had his first career 100-yard rushing game. Against Alabama, he had his first 100-yard receiving game. He's the only player in the SEC with 100-yard games in both categories this season.
Zamir White added two touchdown rushes of his own. He has a rushing touchdown in seven of eight games this season. His nine touchdown rushes this season is tied for third most in the conference. Zamir also went over the 1,000-yard mark in career rushing in the last game as well.
Turning to passing, JT Daniels did not throw for 400 yards and four touchdowns as he did in his Bulldog debut, but the quarterback was very solid. Daniels was 10-for-16 for 139 yards with two touchdowns.
One area that Daniels is excelling at is third down passing. Check out this split.
Tre’ McKitty and Arian Smith caught their first career touchdown passes with the Bulldogs. It was Smith’s first overall and McKitty’s third, as he had two with Florida State. Those two add to the depth that Georgia has in its receiving corp. Here are the top three in terms of receptions that the Bulldogs have had each season under Kirby Smart.
In terms of yards. George Pickens needs just 21 more to reach 1,000 for his career.
Switching to defense, many Dawgs had a big game against the Gamecocks. Georgia’s defense had ten tackles for loss in the game (one each by ten different Bulldogs). Lewis Cine had a career-high 12 tackles in the game for his first career double-digit tackle game. Tyson Campbell also shined as he had his first career interception. His pick was the eighth interception by the Bulldog defense this season which matches the total the team had in each of the last two seasons.
The run defense did a great job controlling Kevin Harris of South Carolina. Harris had 53 yards rushing and averaged just 3.1 yards per attempt. He entered the game averaging 109 yards per game and six yards per attempt.
On special teams, Jake Camarda only had to punt once, but it went an impressive 50 yards. He's currently third in the nation with an average of 47.8 yards per punt. Last season, he averaged 46.8. The Bulldog record for a season is held by Drew Butler when he averaged 48.1 in 2009.
Jake Podlesny added a 32-yard field goal in the third quarter and connected on a career-high six extra point attempts. The Bulldogs have now made 322 consecutive extra points which is a NCAA record.
South Carolina however, did miss an extra point, as Jalen Carter blocked the Gamecock attempt in the fourth quarter.
Kearis Jackson had a season-low one reception last Saturday, but was big in other areas. He had 62 yards on kickoff returns and 55 yards on punt returns. He's one of four players in the nation to have both 50 or more yards on kickoff returns and 50 or more yards on punt returns this season. The last Dawg to achieve this feat in a game was Reggie Davis when he did it in 2015 against Tennessee.
