Dawg Post's Five for Friday: Massive Games Loom for the Georgia Bulldogs
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ATHENS - Kirby Smart and the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs are off this week, but college football isn’t. Here is our Five for Friday heading into the off weekend.
1. It is the final weekend of the season without Georgia football. The Dawgs became bowl eligible with the win over Auburn a few weeks ago. But the stretch run of the season looms. Georgia will travel to Jacksonville, State and Lexington over the next five weeks before Thanksgiving.
A huge game with No. 3 Tennessee looms as well, but both teams have rivalry games next weekend to get through. It is expected that CBS will select the game for a 3:30 kick. It would be pretty shocking if ESPN’s College Gameday isn’t on campus that weekend as well.
A No. 1 vs. No. 3 would be the biggest regular-season matchup in college football since the 2020 season - perhaps since 2019 LSU at Alabama.
Anyway… some time and hurdles remain before that one.
2. What to watch for (UGA edition)
The Dawgs are off this week, so there isn’t a ton to see on the field. It looks like players continue to try to get healthy. Here’s what Kirby said Tuesday when asked about injuries:
Very promising on Smael (Mondon). He went (Tuesday) more than he's gone in two weeks and was in drills and did things and moved around. I would not to say that he was 100%, but the fact he was out there, did punting. He covered people. He is not 100%, but he did way more than he's done the last few weeks. I feel really good about where Smael is at.
I didn't get to see Adonai (Mitchell) much. He's still not able to go on our drill work. He did condition with us and run and looked better.
Jalen (Carter) is continuing to work on the MCL. He's not out there with us conditioning, he does his in the training room, in the weight room. He does stuff with those guys because of where he's at with the MCL.
Kendall (Milton) felt better, he ran yesterday and today, but he did not practice and rep with us, he did straight-line runs.
Ladd (McConkey) is good. Ladd could have gone back in. Ladd's fine, but Ladd has a toe injury. I mentioned you guys before, this is different than the ankle. So, with the ankle and the toe, we're giving him some medicine and taking care of him and cutting back some on this week. But again, he could have come back in the game, and he could play this Saturday if we were playing this Saturday, but we're going to shut him down for a little bit, for a couple days, and try to get some medicine in there and try to get him back a for a stretch run so he can go.
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Getting AD and Carter back seems to be one of the keys to the end of the season. Georgia won’t be peak Georgia until those two guys are back at the same time. Now, do you have to have them both to get to the point where have to have them (easy enough to say)?
No, you probably don’t have to. In the games where Georgia has played without both Mitchell and Carter, the Dawgs have won by a combined score of 97-10. In the games where those two got hurt in back-to-back games the combined score was 65-44. Before that the games where those two played for the Dawgs was 130-10.
Goodness.
Does that duo matter that much? They could. Mitchell takes the top off defenses. Carter makes the middle of the line of scrimmage much more of an adventure than opposing teams would line.
Getting them both back healthy will matter at some point. When that point will be is a good question. Remember that while the circumstances were not at all the same, Georgia played without both Adam Anderson and George Pickens the entire end of the season in 2021.
What to watch for (nonUGA edition)
No. 10 Oregon (-6) hosts No. 9 UCLA in the Pac 12 game of the year so far. I expect the Ducks to win. Either way this game sure seems like it is going to matter in terms of setting up where that league sets up at the end of the season. And it will matter for Georgia’s ranking in the College Football Playoff.
Again, the start of the CFP rankings are only so important. But better to start off as high as possible.
The Georgia Bulldogs WIN the 2021 NATIONAL TITLE!
Check out DAWGSTRUCTION NOW!
3. Quote of the week:
"Let's both beat the state of Alabama today. Go Vols.” - College drinking buddy and Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin a week ago before the Rebels held on to beat Auburn, and Tennessee stormed the field to top Alabama for the first time in a decade and a half.
4. Thursday Night Rundown:
Georgia Tech is no longer in control of its own destiny in the ACC coastal (Atlanta isn’t anywhere near a coast), but it will have to run the table and get a bit of help from someone in the form of beating UNC. At 2-2, the Jackets are still in second place in that division.
One should have never been made to put last night’s game between Tech and Virginia on TV. It was, honestly, one of the worst football games I have ever seen. It put LSU-FSU from earlier this year on a pedestal in terms of advancement of the sport.
5. Lock of the week
I will stay in the gutter of college football, and the ACC for this one. I really like Wake Forrest (-20.5) vs. Boston College. I watched the Eagles play Clemson, and BC is probably going to give up 50 in this game, so you are in pretty good shape on covering a three-touchdown line.
Wake can really score, and BC is scoring just under 17 points a game against P5 teams. Three times this season, and in both road games they have played, the Eagles have failed to score more than twice in a game.
Wake has failed to score more than 40 points twice this season. It hasn’t failed to score more than 31 all year. Deacs - ride or die.
