Georgia Bulldogs vs. Arkansas Razorbacks - Information Overload
Bulldogs Start The Year On The Road Again
Georgia kicks off the 2020 season against Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark. The Bulldogs opened the 2019 season with an SEC road opponent in Vanderbilt, beating the Commodores 30-6. That was the first time since 1995 that the Bulldogs opened a season with a league foe, and the first time it came on the road since 1994. The 2020 regular season features 10 SEC games, and Georgia will play four at home, five on the road and will serve as the home team in the annual neutral site game with Florida in Jacksonville, Fla.
The opener between the Bulldogs and Razorbacks will mark the Division I head coaching debut of Arkansas’ Sam Pittman, who spent the previous four seasons at Georgia, the first three as the offensive line coach and the final year as Associate Head Coach in charge of the offensive line.
Pittman is just one of several Razorbacks on staff with Georgia connections. Former Bulldog special teams coach Scott Fountain is the Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator for the Razorbacks. Former Georgia assistant strength coaches Jamil Walker and Ed Ellis are on staff as Walker serves as the team’s head strength coach while Ellis is the senior associate director. Former Bulldog Fernando Velasco serves as the team’s Director of Player Development, while former Bulldog staffer Patrick Doherty is the Director of Football Operations and Jesse Stone is Director of Personnel for the offense.
Georgia leads the all-time series with Arkansas by a 10-4 margin. The two programs last met six years ago, when the Bulldogs prevailed 45-32 in Little Rock on Oct. 18, 2014. Their last meeting in Fayetteville occurred in the 2009 season, when Georgia won 52- 41. The first four clashes in the series came in bowl games starting with the 1969 Sugar Bowl, a 16-2 Arkansas win. Also of note, Georgia captured the 2002 SEC Championship with a 30-3 victory over the Razorbacks in Atlanta.
Season Openers
The Bulldogs are 96-27-3 in season openers including winning 20 of their past 23. Georgia is 4-0 in season openers under Kirby Smart. Last year, the Bulldogs beat Vanderbilt 30-6 in Nashville,Tenn., to kick off their 2019 campaign.
2020 Uniforms Pay HomageTo 1980 National Champion Team
Georgia will wear red pants in the Sept. 26 season opener at Arkansas. Normally the team would wear its standard “silver britches” for home and away games. The gesture is a tribute to the 1980 Bulldogs, who wore them once that season in the opener againstTennessee. Georgia paired the pants with white jerseys as a road uniform that year. This year is the 40th anniversary of that undefeated national championship season. A commemorative patch is also displayed on the chest.
The Bulldogs have not officially worn the red pants since a matchup with South Carolina in 1988. An all-red, specially-issued uniform was used for the 2011 Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game versus Boise State 2011.
The team also released specially-designed black jerseys that are thought to be in the mix for a game this year as well. Georgia first wore a black jersey as a surprise for the fans during the 2007 Auburn game. The Bulldogs returned in black jerseys in New Orleans for the 2008 Sugar Bowl versus Hawaii later that year. During the 2008 regular season, Georgia took the field in black jerseys during a top-10 matchup with Alabama in Sanford Stadium. Most recently under Kirby Smart, the Bulldogs wore them against Louisiana-Lafayette in 2016.
Battle Begins To Take Over As Bulldog Signal Caller
* Early enrollee Carson Beck has joined junior Stetson Bennett, redshirt freshman D’Wan Mathis and USC transfer and redshirt sophomore JT Daniels as four Georgia quarterbacks vying to re- place three-year starter Jake Fromm. Fromm started an FBS best 42 consecutive games (35-7 record) for the Bulldogs from 2017-19. He was drafted in the NFL Draft’s fifth round and is on the Buffalo
Bills’ active roster.
* Beck completed 136 passes for 1,843 yards and 20 touchdowns last season for Mandarin HS (Fla.) while also rushing for six scores. * Bennett played in five games for the Bulldogs last year and was 20-for-27 for 260 yards and two touchdowns. He was on the 2017 Bulldog squad that went 13-2 and he was named the Offensive ScoutTeam Player of theYear. Bennett spent 2018 at Jones County
Junior College in Mississippi.
* Mathis enrolled early in January 2019 and competed during spring practice. He was then forced to redshirt the 2019 season after undergoing surgery to remove a brain cyst. The native of Belleville, Mich., got his share of snaps this preseason after gaining his medi- cal clearance before spring practice.
* Daniels started all 11 games as a true freshman in 2018 before a knee injury in the 2019 USC opener shortened his sophomore season. He made 12 start for the Trojans during the 2018-19 and has completed 241-of-397 (60.7 percent) for 2,887 yards with 15 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in his career.
Revamped Offensive Line ComesTogether
*The Bulldogs return junior center Trey Hill, who started all 14 games for the Bulldogs last season and was an Associated Press All-Southeastern Conference Second Team selection, along with senior Ben Cleveland, who had seven starts in 2019, and junior Jamaree Salyer, who got the nod in a pair of games including at right tackle in the Sugar Bowl win over No. 7 Baylor.
* In his first career start, redshirt sophomore Warren Ericson played every offensive snap in the 2020 Sugar Bowl victory.
*Also returning will be junior Justin Shaffer, who was sidelined with a neck injury after six games last season. He started a pair of games at left guard before his injury.
* Not only are the Bulldogs replacing four key players from the offensive line, they’re also breaking in a new position coach there. Matt Luke, the head coach at Ole Miss from 2017-19, replaced Sam Pittman, who departed in December to become head coach at Arkansas. Luke arrived in time to coach in the Sugar Bowl.
* Luke will need to replace NFL draftees Andrew Thomas, Isaiah Wilson and Solomon Kindley. In addition, Cade Mays, who started ten games last year, transferred during the offseason to play with his brother atTennessee.