Georgia football wants to 'create nightmare' for opponents. Instead it got punched in mouth
Georgia football players didn’t hide from what they felt was at stake Saturday against South Carolina.
“The real test is this week,” linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson said in the lead up to the game. “It’s kind of like a statement game right now.”
After UT Martin and Ball State, Georgia was back on the national radar in its SEC opener.
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Jesse Sims on ESPN’s College Gameday asked heading to a break Saturday morning: “Can we expect them to show they're the top Dawgs of college football, or has the hype shifted?”
That would be to Deion Sanders' Colorado.
“You’ve got somewhat of a real ballgame this week,” former South Carolina and Florida coach Steve Spurrier joked to this reporter earlier in the week.
Forget somewhat. This was very much a real ballgame.
Georgia (3-0) ended up with a 24-14 home victory but had to channel its Missouri road comeback last year to do it.
The Bulldogs trailed 14-3 this time.
Coach Kirby Smart even mentioned that game to his team at halftime. The Bulldogs trailed 16-6 and won at the end 26-22 in Columbia, Mo.
Nickel back Tykee Smith said Smart stressed starting the second half right to get the momentum back and “handle business.”
“My expectation is to go out and dominate and create a nightmare and make people never want to play you again,” Smart said.
That was not Georgia Saturday. Slow starts are a recurring theme that has cropped up in every game for these Bulldogs.
The silver lining?
“We did respond to adversity,” Smart said. “That’s all it is. It’s going to happen all over the country. People have to play close games to get better.”
Smart sounded a little like former Super Bowl winning coach Bill Parcells who used to say you are what your record says you are.
“You are what you do on the field,” Smart said. “We are a team right now that has played three average first halves. I don’t know if I consider it even average, but they have responded.”
It was fair after the 48-7 blasting of South Carolina last year to wonder if the 2022 Bulldogs were better than the national championship team of 2021.
That’s a debate Bulldogs fan can have.
Nobody is saying the 2023 team now can stack up to those two teams now.
Center Sedrick Van-Pran Granger didn’t push back on the notion that teams coming up on Georgia’s schedule may look at these Bulldogs as vulnerable.
“I’m sure they probably will,” he said. “All we can do is keep working, get better and just hope the good Lord is in our favor.”
Cornerback Kamari Lassiter said he didn’t think this game shows that more close games are ahead for Georgia.
“They punched us in the mouth, but we just had to keep fighting back,” Lassiter said.
Georgia outgained South Carolina 290-129 in the second half and outscored the Gamecocks 21-0.
“We are resilient,” Smart said.
He said South Carolina coach Shane Beamer told him afterwards, ‘You showed why you have a championship-caliber football team.’
Smart said, “Teams that are championship-caliber find a way when they don’t have their best game. We’ve got to figure why didn’t we have our best games."
Public address announcer Brook Whitmire fired up the Sanford Stadium crowd before the starting lineup was announced Saturday by introducing, "The No. 1 team in the land, our back-to-back national champion Georgia Bulldogs.”
Georgia probably keeps that No. 1 label. Offensive lineman Jared Wilson said this week, "We’re one of the best teams in the country. We are the best team in the country."
There could be more debate about that perhaps with more close calls.
“We learned a lot of about this team," Van Pran-Granger said. "I think we really, really grew a lot today and came together and jelled. I’m happy about that.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Here's what Georgia football learned by rallying by South Carolina
