The tenth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs will be back in Athens tomorrow afternoon to take on the UMASS Minutemen. The Dawgs are coming off one of their best performances of the season, earning a 31-17 win over the Tennessee Vols last Saturday. The Dawgs will head into this one, hoping to polish some things up and avoid any injuries, have a strong finish against Georgia Tech next week, and find themselves in the College Football Playoff. Whereas for the Minutemen, they have had a tough last few seasons, recently parting ways with Head Coach, Don Brown who went 6-28 in his second stint with the program. Tomorrow’s game has a scheduled start time of 12:45 p.m. ET and can be viewed on SEC Network.
Given that this is a game for the Dawgs to clean some things up while also getting some younger guys to see the field, there aren’t any major match-ups. With that being said, there is something worth keeping an eye on.
Will Stockton or Rashada see the field?
The Georgia offense looked to have found its way last week against Tennesee. Carson Beck turned in a stellar performance, completing 25 of 40 passes for 347 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 32 yards and adding another touchdown on the ground. The Dawgs’ receiving and tight-end core also turned in one of their most productive games of the season. Dominic Lovett, London Humphreys, Oscar Delp, and Ben Yurosek all had 50+ receiving yards with Delp finding the endzone twice as the Dawgs’ passing game looked to have hit its stride against the Vols.
With the Dawgs offense looking to do much of the same this week from last week and perhaps a little more, the first-string offense will hopefully be out of the game by the start of the fourth quarter. That opens up some mop-up playing time for both Gunner Stockton and Jaden Rashada. Neither quarterback has had the opportunity to see the field since week two against Tennesee Tech, with Stockton being the only backup QB to see snaps in that game, completing 10 of 12 passes for 90 yards. Though Stockton is believed to be the next man up for the Dawgs at the quarterback position, there are whispers that Jaden Rashada is making a case to be as well. Between the two, Rashada has more experience, starting three games at Arizona State as a true freshman. Through those three games, Rashada completed 44 of 82 pass attempts for 485 yards and four touchdowns while throwing three interceptions. Hopefully, both guys get some meaningful snaps tomorrow to see if Georgia needs to go shopping for a quarterback in the portal come this off-season.
Prediction UGA-42 UMASS-7
Georgia should handle business pretty comfortably tomorrow, I expect the Dawgs to continue to try to establish the run game early on with Nate Frazier in order to take those deep shots in the passing game. The defense should have a strong performance as well with plenty of young guys getting some meaningful snaps. As always, GO DAWGS!