| Athens Banner-Herald
COLOMBIA, SC – There was no shock in South Carolina this time by Gamecocks not ranked against a UGA football team in the top 10.
Instead, it was a Bulldog beating.
Georgia, No. 9 on the College Football Playoff ranking and No. 10 on the Amway Coaches Poll, avoided anything close to the double defeat in last year’s overtime in Athens, knocking the Gamecocks to the ground.
Georgia rolled 332 yards and ran for a 45-16 win at the Williams-Brice Stadium.
Here are five lessons as the Bulldogs reached their 6-2 record:
Bulldogs come back running
Consider going from starvation to partying when it comes to the Bulldog racing game.
After being stuck just 8 yards last week against the State of Mississippi, the Bulldogs razed the exhausted Gamecocks behind their big offensive line.
Georgia went from the tenth smallest number of yards run by an FBS team this season last week to a race record this season. They passed the 215 running yards they had against Kentucky at the start of the third quarter.
James Cook ran for 104 yards, his career record, in just 4 loads.
The junior scored in a five-yard touchdown in a pitch and added a 29-yard touchdown running through the middle after the O-line opened a huge hole.
Cook went 44 yards down the right sideline for his longest Bulldog run.
Zamir White added 84 yards and two touchdowns in 13 races.
Kenny McIntosh took action with 79 yards in nine races. His yards after contact were abundant in a 13-yard run in the first half.
Defense has ups and downs
Linebacker Monty Rice finished South Carolina’s running back, Kevin Harris, on the leg in the first play of the third quarter, losing by a yard.
This was the kind of play that Bulldogs had missed a lot in the first half, when many missing tackles contributed to Gamecocks putting together some extended drives.
Georgia started with a pair of three e-outs, but the Gamecocks then started to move the chains.
South Carolina made 65 yards in 8 moves in a touchdown and then 57 in 11 for a 39-yard field goal to reduce the three touchdown advantage to 21-10 with 8:14 left in the first half.
Harris, the SEC’s second-largest rusher with 109.4 yards per game, was kept at 53 yards on 17 shipments.
He also had 4 30-yard receptions and tight end Nick Muse fired for 8 131-yard receptions and a touchdown
South Carolina had 273 offensive yards on a night when it lost its best offensive player, Shi Smith, who lost the game due to a concussion.
Freshman Luke Doty made 18 from 22 to 190 yards with a touchdown and interception.
The Gamecocks used a trick play for a Doty to Muse won 35 yards in a flea blink.
Battle of good friends goes to Smart
There is no telling whether there will ever be another coach clash between Georgia coach Kirby Smart and South Carolina interim coach Mike Bobo, but it’s a shame that this hasn’t happened in a typical year.
Smart earned the right to brag about his good friend and former roommate and teammate.
“If it weren’t for the year we’re having this year, I’m sure many of our families and close friends we played with would be here and have fun together,” said Bobo days before playing. “Looking back every day after a game in the McWhorter parking lot. Our families have become very close. You go there after a game and they are using unauthorized use. “
George Bobo went to work as an assistant to Sonny Smart at Rabun County High. The two still live in Clayton, in the mountains.
Gamecocks (2-7) lost for the fifth straight game. It was played before 16,144, short of even the capacity for social distance.
South Carolina was already missing three holders in high school who dropped out and in these games there were two injured attackers from the defensive line and lost another during the game through injury.
Bobo said the scouting team’s defense used three assistants graduated from the secondary line and attackers from the defensive line. He said bettors and kickers were lining up in the scouting team on the wide receiver.
Daniels need not take offense
Georgia quarterback JT Daniels went from a night of career-high passes to his second worst out of 14 games.
Daniels did 10 from 16 to 139 yards with 2 touchdown passes and 1 interception.
The previous low pass yard total from the Southern California transfer was 89 yards in a 41-28 loss to Utah in 2018.
He hit the tight end Tre ‘McKitty on a 6-yard touchdown pass. The two hooked themselves in the longest pass game of the game previously on a 40-yard reception.
Daniels’ first interception came with 9 seconds remaining at the break, in a pass that dodged Kearis Jackson near the touchline and was caught.
Jackson made up for that with a 52-yard punt return early in the third quarter, the longest of the season’s Bulldogs. This prepared for a 3-yard touchdown run by Zamir White.
How about those first times?
Junior cornerback Tyson Campbell had to wait until his 31st game for his first career interception.
Freshman wide receiver Arian Smith didn’t have to wait long for the first college touchdown.
As the Bulldogs moved away in the second half, the two players had great moments.
Campbell took Luke Doty and returned him 40 yards.
Smith delivered a 31-yard stroke from JT Daniels.
The 1.8m and 185lbs athlete from Lakeland High School (Florida) was sidelined due to a knee injury. He traveled to Jacksonville for the Florida game.