Category: UGA Football

ATHENS, Ga. — The No. 2-ranked Georgia football team cruised to an easy 33-0 win over Samford in the Bulldogs’ home opener Saturday afternoon. Stetson Bennett threw for 300 yards, the defense was dominant throughout, and kicker Jack Podlesny connected on four field goals in front of a crowd of 92,746 at Sanford Stadium.

After scoring touchdowns on its first seven drives in last Saturday’s season-opening 49-3 rout of then-No. 11 Oregon in Atlanta, Georgia (2-0) didn’t get into the end zone as easily against Samford (1-1), an FCS squad from the Southern Conference. Podlesny, who was busy booting extra points last week, made field goals from 27, 25, 26 and 25 yards.

Georgia ended the game with 479 yards of offense, averaging 6.4 yards per play, while the defense held Samford to 128 total yards. It was Georgia’s third win in three meetings against Samford. The teams first played in 1943 when Samford was still Howard College. Georgia won that meeting 38-0 and beat Samford 42-14 in 2017.

The Bulldogs hit the road next week for their Southeastern Conference opener at South Carolina. The Gamecocks dropped their SEC debut Saturday, falling 44-30 at No. 16 Arkansas.

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Another Shutout For The Defense: For the ninth time in the Kirby Smart era, the Bulldogs registered a shutout in posting a 33-0 win over Samford today. Samford finished with 128 yards of total offense on 43 plays. The leading tackler for the Bulldogs was Smael Mondon with four stops and 1.5 TFL. Samford finished the first half with only 59 yards of total offense on 23 plays. Late in the second quarter and trailing 23-0, they turned it over on downs at their own 44, which led to a TD. T Georgia forced one turnover that led to three points. Last year, the Bulldogs posted three shutout (Vandebrilt, No. 8 Arkansas and Ga. Tech). In the season opener last Saturday against No. 11 Oregon, Georgia limited the Ducks to three points on the day including a goal-line stand with less than two minutes left in the contest. For the day, Oregon ran 68 plays and had 313 yards of total offense.

Offense Puts Up 33 Points: Georgia posted a 33-0 victory, rolling up 479 yards of total offense on 75 plays. In the first half, the Bulldogs were 6-for-6 in the Red Zone with three TDs and three field goals, tallying 329 yards of total offense on 47 plays in building a 30-0 lead. At the start of the 4th quarter with Georgia leading 30-0, it was announced that by mutual agreement of the coaches, the 4th quarter would be shortened to 12 minutes. The Bulldogs would add one field goal in the second half and finish 7-for-8 in the Red Zone.

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Type Georgia offensive lineman Tate Ratledge’s name into the Google search bar and the second suggestion reads “Tate Ratledge mullet.” Informed of this when he sat down for a Quick Chat recently, the big (6-foot-6 and 315 pounds) redshirt sophomore offensive lineman laughed and shook his head, which caused that long hair in the back to dance a bit on his collar.

Yes, Ratledge has a mullet. It’s a bit silly, and he knows it’s a bit silly. That hair has come close to the chopping block several times, he said, but it’s still there. And the man is much more than his mullet.

Ratledge, who missed almost all of Georgia’s national championship season in 2021 due to a broken foot, gave an answer when he met with the media before the season started that deserves to be highlighted here. Asked about the role his teammates played in helping him through his recovery, Ratledge, from Rome, Ga., gave a terrific response: “A lot bigger one than they know. It was seeing them every day (that) is really what kept me sane during that time. It was coming in here, just seeing them, going to meetings, talking to them. So they played a really big role in that.”

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Fresh off an impressive 49-3 rout of No. 11 Oregon in Atlanta, third-ranked Georgia (1-0) plays host to Samford (1-0) Saturday at 4 p.m. on the SEC Network. The Bulldogs of Samford upset No. 8 Kennesaw State 27-17 in Birmingham, Ala., on Sept. 1. The Samford Bulldogs are part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). They are led by Chris Hatcher, who hired Kirby Smart for his first coaching job at Valdosta State in 2000. Smart served as the defensive backs coach, and the defensive coordinator at that time was Will Muschamp. In 2001, Muschamp left to become linebackers coach at LSU and Smart was promoted to defensive coordinator. Georgia is 1-0 all-time versus Samford, winning 42-14 in 2017.

Saturday will mark the home opener for Georgia where the Bulldogs are 368-107-9. In the Smart era, the Bulldogs are 31-4 at home including 29-1 since 2017. Georgia’s .886 winning percentage at home under Smart is the best in school history. The Bulldogs were 3-3 at home in his first season (2016), and the only loss since then came in double overtime to South Carolina in 2019. Georgia has won 12 straight home games.

Georgia has a streak of 58 consecutive sellouts that began Sept. 15, 2012 versus Florida Atlantic. The last non-sellout was Sept. 1, 2012 versus Buffalo. The school record for consecutive sellouts is 64. The record streak began Sept. 1, 2001 versus Arkansas and lasted through Sept. 10, 2011 versus South Carolina.

Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium grew to its current capacity of 92,746 in 2004. It ranks fifth among capacity for SEC stadiums and ninth for largest on-campus stadiums across the country.

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