Georgia Bulldogs Countdown to Kickoff: 72 Days
Following up from Wes’ piece yesterday highlighting a pair of 73s on the stat sheet 73 days away from Georgia and Oregon, I decided to do the same with 72. You might sense a theme.
He wrote about Stetson Bennett getting comfortable in place of JT Daniels with a 73-yard touchdown pass to Jermaine Burton in his first start and Lewis Cine’s team-leading 73 tackles. Today I tell you about a game in which Bennett only threw for 72 yards and the Bulldogs still managed to win in dominant fashion as well as a Butkus Award winning linebacker that put up 72 tackles on the season.
No. 2 Georgia vs. No. 8 Arkansas – October 2, 2021
It’s not often that you can manage to win a College Football game – better yet a top-10 contest – these days throwing for less than 100 yards. That’s exactly what Georgia did in 2021 against Arkansas though.
Stetson Bennett was making his second start of the season in place of JT Daniels. After Daniels started the season-opener against Clemson, he missed Week 2 versus UAB, and Bennett shined, throwing a school-record tying five touchdowns including the 73-yard strike Wes wrote about yesterday. Daniels returned against South Carolina and Vanderbilt before being sidelined once again. First it was an oblique injury. Now it was a lat strain. Either way, Bennett didn’t care, and ran with the starting spot that was handed over to him.
Only this time, he wasn’t asked to air it out. After Georgia struggled to stretch the field in the opener, the Bulldogs wanted to do just that against UAB. Bennett and company responded by throwing for a combined 376 yards and six touchdowns through the air. This time though, it was the ground and pound of RBU that got Georgia the win.
The Bulldogs totaled 273 yards on the ground as Bennett handed it off 16 times to Zamir White, 12 times to James Cook and Kendall Milton and 10 times to Kenny McIntosh, a career-high number of carries for the latter three. White found the end zone three times on the day, twice on the ground and once by recovering Dan Jackson‘s blocked punt, while Milton scored his first career touchdown – the play on which Jalen Carter blocked three Razorbacks by himself.
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Defensively, Georgia forced a three-and-out with the help of the Sanford Stadium crowd on its first drive. Arkansas was called for back to back false starts to get the game going before KJ Jefferson was sacked inside the 5-yard-line by Devonte Wyatt. First-round receiver Treylon Burks was limited to three catches for just 10 yards while the Bulldogs posted their second straight shutout.
Nakobe Dean
Nakobe Dean took home the Butkus Award in 2021 with 72 tackles, second on the team of course to Lewis Cine‘s 73. Dean did however lead the Bulldogs in tackles for loss with 10.5 and finished just a half sack off the lead in that category too with 6.0. Twice did Dean intercept a pass, doing so against each of Georgia’s biggest SEC rivals Auburn and Florida. His interception against the Gators was especially memorable as the Horn Lake, Miss. native took it 50 yards to the house for a pick-six.
For as much as Dean did on the field, he was also a leader for the defense off of it. Named one of four team captains as a junior, Dean answered the tough questions for the Dawgs when necessary. He was named a First-Team All-American according to the Associated Press, Walter Camp, American Football Coaches Association, Sporting News, USA Today and others while also earning the captain spot on the AFCA Good Works Team. Dean was drafted in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Recent Georgia Bulldogs Countdown to Kickoff Stories
No. 73 – Stetson gets comfortable, Lewis leads the defense
No. 74 – Chris Smith’s 74-yard pick six
No. 75 – 75 yard scores from legends of RBU
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