UGA Football Releases Captains for Season Opener
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ATHENS - Kirby Smart and UGA football released captains for the season opener against Tennessee-Martin on Saturday morning.
Jamon Dumas-Johnson, Javon Bullard, Brock Bowers and Sedrick Van Pran were named UGA Football's captains for the first game of the season Saturday morning. The four players are a quartet that are some of the best on the team at Georgia.
Dumas-Johnson was one of the program’s leading tacklers last season. Bullard was named MVP of the College Football National Championship Game. Van Pran has started the Bulldogs’ last 30 games, and has been a leader vocally for some time. Bowers is considered one of the best players in college football.
Georgia released the program’s first hype video of the season Friday night. The Bulldogs are considered massive favorites over Tennessee-Martin Satuday night.
2023 UGA Football Captains
1. Tennessee-Martin - Jamon Dumas-Johnson, Javon Bullard, Brock Bowers and Sedrick Van Pran
Beck Directs Veteran Offense
The Bulldogs return nine players with starting experience on offense, including junior C Sedrick Van Pran and All-American and John Mackey Award winner junior TE Brock Bowers, who was the 2021 and 2022 leader in catches, receiving yards and touchdowns. Georgia ranked fifth nationally averaging 41.1 points per game last season. Junior QB Carson Beck has earned the starting job after playing behind Heisman Trophy finalist Stetson Bennett who is now with the Los Angeles Rams. Redshirt sophomore Brock Vandagriff and redshirt freshman Gunner Stockton will look to gain experience directing the offense during the 2023 campaign as well.
Setting The Tone Up Front
Georgia’s offensive line is slated to return three of five starters from a year ago. For the past two years, the offensive line has been a finalist for the Joe Moore Award, which has gone to the University of Michigan. The Bulldogs must replace Warren McClendon and Broderick Jones as the duo combined for 56 career starts before moving on to the NFL. The Bulldogs welcome back junior C Sedrick Van Pran, who has a team-best 30 consecutive starts, plus redshirt sophomore guard Tate Ratledge and senior guard Xavier Truss, who each started 14 contests in 2022. Junior Amarius Mims filled in for McClendon after a knee injury sidelined him during the College Football Playoff. Mims will be in the starting unit. The team tragically lost OL Devin Willock in a car accident this past January. Willock played in all 15 games last year, starting a pair of contests.
Majority of Defenders Return
The Bulldogs return 12 players who have starting experience from a corps that ranked fifth nationally last season allowing opponents only 14.3 points per contest. Starting up front, Nazir Stackhouse, Zion Logue and Tramel Walthour had 34 starts between them last year and will work to fill the void left by NFL first round pick and All-American Jalen Carter. The team’s two leading tacklers from last season, inside backers Smael Mondon and Jamon Dumas-Johnson, also return to stabilize the middle of the defense. On the outside, the Bulldogs are aiming to replace captain and NFL first round pick Nolan Smith and veteran Robert Beal, Jr. with Chaz Chambliss and rising sophomore Jalon Walker, among others. Reigning Defensive MVP in both the CFP Semifinal and National Championship Javon Bullard is back alongside Kamari Lassiter, who started all 15 games at DB last season, in the secondary along with National Freshman of the Year finalist Malaki Starks. In addition, last year’s leader in sacks, Mykel Williams, is expected to play a larger role in his second year while Dan Jackson will be returning at safety following an injury that cost him the final eight games of 2022. Dumas-Johnson, Lassiter and Stackhouse have the longest active starting streaks on defense at 15 games.
Thorson Back While Placekickers Battle For Job
Australia native Brett Thorson, who earned All-SEC Freshman honors in 2022, posted a 45.0 average on 36 punts last year. Thorson will benefit from having snapper William Mote back in the fold. Mote has been the Bulldogs’ primary snapper on punts the past two years and is expected to snap on field goals and PATs this season. Georgia will have to replace Jack Podlesny who anchored down the place-kicker spot the last three years. In 2022, Podlesny was 26-of-31 on field goals and drilled 73-of-74 PATs. Jared Zirkel, who is 1-for-1 in career field goals (21-yarder at USC last year) plus has nine career kickoffs, battled the nation’s No. 1 prep kicker, Peyton Woodring, during preseason camp for the placekicking job as well as handling kickoffs.
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About UT Martin
The Skyhawks are members of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and are the two-time defending champions of the Oho Valley Conference. FCS teams can have a maxium of 63 scholarships and split them up however they want. The Skyhawks went 7-4 last season and fell 65-24 at No. 3 Tennessee. They are coached by Jason Simpson who is in his 18th season at the helm with a record of 107-84 (.560).
Did You Know? Simpson gave Bulldog defensive line coach Tray Scott his first full-time job when he hired him to coach UT-Martin’s defensive line in 2013. Simpson began his collegiate career as a football/baseball player at Mississippi State and concluded his career playing baseball at Southern Miss.
We’ve Gone Streaking
* The Bulldogs are 29-1 in their last 30 games including winning back-to-back national championships. Georgia enters the 2023 season on a 17-game winning streak, which is tied for the school record. The Bulldogs won 17 in a row from 1945-47 while the current stretch of success began with a 34-11 win over Michigan in the 2021 CFP semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl.
* Georgia has won 27 consecutive regular season games dating back to a 31-24 home victory over Mississippi State on Nov. 21, 2020. The school record is 28 in a row from 1981-83.
* Georgia’s longest home winning streak is 24 set from 1980-83. Currently, the Bulldogs have won 18 straight at home. The current streak began with a 21-0 win over Kentucky on Oct. 19, 2019.
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