ATHENS, GA – In the case of former Georgia Bulldogs offensive line coach and current Arkansas Razorbacks head coach, Sam Pittman, it was anything but a warm and welcome homecoming for him and his visiting eighth-ranked ‘Hogs, as they got blanked 37-0.
Pittman, who served under Kirby Smart as OL coach from 2016-18 before being elevated to assistant head coach/offensive line coach in 2019, witnesses his offensive line get dominated from start to finish in his first visit to Sanford Stadium since leaving for Fayetteville in 2020.
Georgia’s much-ballyhooed defensive front held the high-scoring Razorbacks to 161 total yards for the game. IN a game that was never close from start to finish, Arkansas’ two false starts to start the game proved to be a microcosm of how their day would go at Sanford Stadium.
Two false starts. A short play. A sack. A punt.
That was pretty much it for Arkansas.
Georgia was so dominant that their backup quarterback Stetson Bennett only needed to throw the ball 11 times. For the game, Bennett went 7-11 for 72 yards.
The Dawgs ground game and their borderline-legendary defense did the rest. All of this with starting QB JT Daniels sitting out with a lat injury.
Georgia racked up 272 rushing yards on the ground, with four running backs each getting ten-plus carries. The Bulldogs were lead by Zamir White, who carried the ball 16 times for 68 yards and three touchdowns. Kendall Milton had 12 carries for 48 yards and one touchdown.
If this is a taste of things to come for the second-ranked Bulldogs, then let’s just all make plans for Atlanta and Bama-Georgia Part V. In pitching their second straight shutout, as UGA blanked Vanderbilt last weekend, Georgia has outscored their opponents 205-23.
To do that in arguably the top college football conference in the nation is nothing short of impressive. The question that UGA needs to answer is, can they do this when the money is on the line and when the stakes are higher?
Arkansas is a very good team on the come-up, and an early-season surprise, but for many jaded Bulldog fans, they have seen this story before of highly-ranked Georgia teams failing to close the deal. Not to sound like a hater, but the Bulldogs have always been the bridesmaid and never the bride. And as all things go in SEC Nation, Georgia needs to find a way to solve their Alabama problem.
Will they? Perhaps.
But it’s a long season down south, and SEC football is not a marathon, but a war of attrition. In dominating a quality team such as Arkansas, Georgia fired off the first salvo in their inevitable SEC title clash with the Crimson Tide.