The Daily Recap: The best UGA QB room in the Kirby Smart era?
Here is the April 19 edition of The Daily Recap presented by JFQ Lending.
Best QB group in the Smart era?
At G-Day, quarterbacks accounted for 684 passing yards and five touchdowns.
With a roster featuring four passers who are all capable of throwing the deep ball, this year’s G-Day Game saw the passing attack in action.
Starting quarterback JT Daniels finished his day 28-of-41 passing for 324 yards and three touchdowns. Backup quarterback Carson Beck completed 22 of 31 passes for 236 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Stetson Bennett and Brock Vandagriff also made some good throws in their time on the field.
This led to head coach Kirby Smart getting a question asking whether this is the best group of quarterbacks he’s had on the Georgia roster at the same time.
“Top to bottom, I really feel really good about all four of them,” Smart said. “I don’t know that we can say we’ve ever had four that you feel confident about. These four I feel really good about. I think they’re good football players. I think they’re bright, I think they are intelligent, and they challenge themselves.”
Smart has had some good quarterback groups before, too. In 2017, Georgia had Jake Fromm and Jacob Eason on the roster at the same time. A year later, after Eason transferred, Justin Fields backed up Fromm.
This time, however, the room has both quality and depth.
“It’s hard to compare it to other years, as we’ve certainly had a talented quarterback room before. But with four guys you feel good about, it’s hard to have that in college football. They challenged themselves, and to be honest, we set our practices up where they get to develop,” Smart said. “You only got to see a piece of that today, and it’s unfortunate, because there’s only one quarterback on the field at a time. In our practices, a lot of times there are two out there and more reps available. So, we’re trying to get their growth to happen a little faster than it would without getting the reps.”
Daniels in command
Given his stat line, Daniels was in control throughout Saturday’s G-Day performance.
It’s believed that Daniels is only the second player in program history to have a 300-yard outing at G-Day.
“From being at practice, it was just another day for us,” Daniels said. “We’ve seen [receivers] AD (Adonai Mitchell), D-Rob (Demetris Robertson), and Kearis (Jackson), and all the guys, make plays like that before. I think that's a really good quarterback room and a good system,” Daniels said. “Everybody is about their job to get better every day. I think you saw it in a spring game, where certain things are simplified and made a little easier.”
Players who impressed
Mitchell, tight end Darnell Washington and running back Zamir White all stood out on the offensive side of the ball. Mitchell was a frequent target of Daniels, catching seven passes for 105 yards and a touchdown.
On defense, cornerback Jalen Kimber, outside linebacker Nolan Smith and inside linebacker Quay Walker all had good showings. Kimber had two well-executed pass breakups that stood out.
Most revealing plays
Dayne Young broke down five plays from Saturday’s G-Day Game. One of those was Washington’s 51-yard catch and run that saw him act as a matchup nightmare for the defense.
“Washington is the size of LeBron James. (Lovasea) Carroll is the size of Dansby Swanson,” Young wrote. “If a size differential of that magnitude ever stares across the line from Washington, the sophomore tight end should get the football every single time. He is a prized weapon that can frustrate any defensive coordinator. Georgia lined him up along the boundary on this play. This is a great tool in 3-by-1 sets with an RPO. If the defense puts a small guy on Washington, give him the damn ball. If they put a bigger player over there, that's one fewer player in the box on run defense.”
Putting G-Day in perspective
Anthony Dasher wrote that it can be tricky trying to make judgments off of what happened at G-Day. While fans see this scrimmage as an early glimpse at the 2021 team, the coaching staff has a different approach.
“For example, coaches like Kirby Smart typically have three goals when it comes to a spring game,” Dasher wrote. “No. 1, to get work in. No. 2, to show as little as possible as it relates to plays and scheme. No. 3, make sure nobody gets hurt.
“From that standpoint, G-Day appeared to be a big success.”
Baseball: Bombs away
Georgia took this weekend’s series against Kentucky with a 17-6 victory on Sunday. This 17-run performance followed Saturday’s win, which saw the Bulldogs score eight runs.
“I just think our hitters had a really good approach,” head coach Scott Stricklin said. “It was just a really aggressive approach by our hitters today. I thought we had great at-bats all the way through, we drew some walks, got some big two-out hits, and overall was just a great performance by our offense.”
Go deep
Quick out, touchdown
National champs
Outside the Vent
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Kentucky landed a commitment from a Rivals100 offensive lineman.
Here are some intriguing edge rushers with great value in the NFL draft.
This has to be the most improbable touchdown pass in football history.
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