UGA Football: A Debut to Remember

By John Frierson
Staff Writer

One month and 11 days ago, the Georgia football team walked off of Dooley Field and into its locker room after a 44-21 whipping of Tennessee. On Georgia’s giant video board at Sanford Stadium on Saturday night, about 15 minutes before Jake Camarda crushed the opening kickoff, were two words that resonated: Welcome Back!

And welcome aboard to JT Daniels, who put on a spectacular show in the 13th-ranked Bulldogs’ 31-24 win over Mississippi State. Daniels became the third quarterback to start a game for Georgia this season, taking over for Stetson Bennett and D’Wan Mathis. After throwing for 401 yards and four touchdowns, his first snaps in a Georgia uniform couldn’t have gone much better.

“It feels really good,” Daniels said.

A lot has happened between that Oct. 10 romp over the Vols and Saturday night’s return, against Mississippi State. There have been a pair of losses to very tough, top-10 teams, at Alabama and against Florida in Jacksonville — losses that took the Bulldogs’ SEC East fate out of their hands for the first time in several years and losses that were impacted by inconsistent quarterback play. There also was a grind-it-out 14-3 win at Kentucky on Halloween, and last week there was the postponement of Georgia’s trip to Missouri because the Tigers were having coronavirus issues.

Georgia took the field Saturday night in their black jerseys that were conceived of well before the season along with the red pants and white jerseys Georgia wore in the opener at Arkansas to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1980 national championship team. Georgia first wore a black jersey in 2007, against Auburn, and has worn one occasionally since, most recently in 2016.

Looking particularly sharp in his black jersey, wearing No. 18 for those that hadn’t seen him yet, was Daniels. In his first appearance for the Bulldogs since transferring from Southern Cal before the season, the redshirt sophomore looked very comfortable, particularly on the deep balls of which there were many.

Daniels had been working with the scout team before getting his chance to start, Smart said, and made plays against the Bulldogs’ defense in practice. In Smart’s words, Daniels “took the bull by the horns” and delivered in his debut.

Daniels redshirted last season after a knee injury in the Trojans’ season opener, so Saturday’s game was his first live action since Aug. 31, 2019. He had to wait a bit longer to run onto the field because Mississippi State received the opening kickoff and went on a 15-play, 8-minute drive that ended with a 22-yard field goal with 6:54 left in the opening quarter.

In his first pass attempt, on Georgia’s second offensive play, Daniels threw to his left to wide receiver George Pickens. It was the first of many connections with Pickens, who had missed the past two games with an injury. Pickens ran a quick curl route on the play and turned the reception into a 28-yard gain. That drive didn’t lead to points, but Georgia’s next one did.

After the defense held State to a 3-and-out, Daniels hit Pickens for 8 yards. That was followed by a 10-yard Zamir White run and a 6-yard completion to Jermaine Burton, who had a huge night also. Later in the drive, now in the second quarter of the fast-moving game, there was a beautiful deep ball to Pickens inside the State 5 that draw a 15-yard pass-interference penalty on third-and-11.

Daniels hit a crossing Burton on the left side for 14 yards soon after, and two plays later, on second-and-goal at the State 4-yard line, Daniels rolled to his right and fired a low pass to the right edge of the end zone, where only Pickens could get to it. Pickens brought it in and the Bulldogs had the lead, 7-3.

Daniels was 7-for-8 for 35 yards and the TD on the drive. He was just getting warmed up.

Late in the half, on first-and-20 at the UGA 20-yard line following a penalty, Daniels aired it out up the right side to Burton — a 46-yard gain. Two plays later, he hit Pickens on the right side to the 21, a 13-yarder. Soon after, following another penalty that nullified most of a big play to Burton, Daniels hit him again, an 18-yard strike in the back of the end zone with 30 seconds left in the half, tying the game 17-all.

At the half, Daniels was 13-for-17 for 204 yards and two touchdowns – he was sacked twice and had a couple of balls batted down — while State’s Will Rogers was also very efficient going 24 of 29 for 210 yards and a TD.

Burton had 130 receiving yards for the season, on 10 receptions, entering the game. The very talented freshman had 149 yards on seven catches at the half. Pickens, also busy, had five catches for 56 yards at the break.

Georgia opened the second half with an 8-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. Daniels completed all six of his passes, including a 48-yard aerial strike up the right side to Burton or the go-ahead touchdown. The Bulldogs led 24-17 at that point, Daniels had 280 yards and three TDs passing and Burton was up to 197 yards receiving.

The game was turning into quite a welcome home for the Bulldog offense and quite a welcome to the Bulldogs for Daniels. And Georgia needed all of the big plays from the passing it game it could get because the ground game was stopped all night — Zamir White and James Cook combined for 28 yards rushing on 15 attempts — and Mississippi State was matching Georgia score for score,

“Mississippi State played us to stop the run, too, and took a lot of chances,” Smart said, “and (Daniels) took advantage of that ”

The game was tied 24-24 with 5:17 left in the third quarter and at that point it seemed like whichever defense could get one stop in the final 20 minutes could decide the outcome.

It was State that got a stop, on Georgia’s next drive, after Daniels’ deep ball to Pickens, on third-and-11 from the UGA 36, fell incomplete. And then Georgia’s defense answered with a three-and-out of its own.

As unlikely as it seemed given what had transpired before it, both defenses got stops on the next possessions, as well. By the time Adam Anderson batted down a Rogers third-down pass and State punted, with Georgia taking over at its 28-yard line, there was 14:00 left in a tie game.

Would this be the time with Daniels and the aerial attack would put Georgia in front for good? Well, it wasn’t a drive that anyone would have scripted to go how it did.

Georgia’s go-ahead drive included two dropped passes in the end zone or at the goal line, and there was a holding penalty that resulted in a third-and-20 at the State 39-yard line. And then there was Daniels’ 39-yard heave to Kearis Jackson in the end zone, making up for the TD Jackson had dropped a few plays before. After it all, Georgia led 31-24 with 9:50 to play, and Daniels was up to 370 passing yards and four touchdowns.

Burton led the receivers with eight catches for 197 yards and two touchdowns. Pickens had eight for 87 yards and score, Jackson finished with four receptions for 55 yards and a TD, and Demetris Robertson caught three passes for 45 yards.

Along with the volume, there were the big plays: Burton had a 49-yard catch, Jackson a 40-yarder, Robertson a 31-yarder and Pickens’ long was 28 yards.

Late in the game, Daniels became the first Georgia quarterback to throw for 400 or more yards since Aaron Murray — good company to join — did it against Auburn in 2013. Daniels finished his memorable debut with 28 completions on 38 attempts, 401 yards passing, four touchdowns, and no turnovers.

“In terms of emotions, in the end, on the victory formation, it started to sink in a little bit,” Daniels said. “But it still really hasn’t yet that I have been able to play football again. I just feel a lot of gratitude, for my family, for this team, for this coaching staff, and for everyone helping me get back on my feet.”

Welcome to the Air Raid version of the Georgia Bulldogs? That may be going a bit far, but for one special night, one spectacular debut for Daniels, about 15 months since his last throw in a game, the night sky was filled with Georgia passes finding their mark and the passing game rolling like we haven’t seen in a long time.

Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men’s Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He’s also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.