With the first game of the season just under a month away, enthusiasm and expectations for Kirby Smart’s sixth Georgia Bulldogs team are running high.
Does that mean another SEC title, a second trip to the College Football Playoff and another shot at the national championship?
Sure, those are on every Dawgs fan’s wish list, including mine. However, there also are other things I’d like to see happen this season that, if put all together, could mean those top-of-the-line wishes get fulfilled.
I don’t do a wish list before every season, and, even when I do, many of my goals for the Dawgs wind up not being met. But, when I do see a bunch of my wishes come true, it usually means a special season.
For example, shortly before the 2017 campaign began, my wishes for the Dawgs published in the Blawg included having two 1,000-yard running backs, an improved offensive line, much better production in the red zone on both offense and defense, at least one of the wide receivers breaking out, more imaginative and effective play-calling, and improvement on special teams. All those wishes came true that season, some in spectacular fashion.
So, here’s a rundown of some of the things this fan hopes to see in the coming season from the Dawgs — as well as one that I hope never to see again.
While the hopes are that Georgia will have more of a downfield passing attack with returner JT Daniels at quarterback, you don’t win SEC championships without a formidable ground game, so my first wish for the 2021 season is for the Dawgs to return to what they did every year from 2014 through 2019 — have a 1,000-yard running back.
The string was broken in last year’s pandemic-shortened season, when Zamir White led the team with 779 yards rushing. (Had the Dawgs played a normal 12-game regular season, he likely would have kept the streak going.)
As for this year, there are a couple of reasons for Georgia fans to be hopeful that White will make the 1,000-yard mark. First, he’s back to full-strength (he seemed a bit tentative in the first half of last season as he returned from a torn ACL), and, secondly, if Daniels does indeed stretch the field with the passing game on a consistent basis, that should loosen things up for the running backs.
Actually, the Dawgs are so well-stocked at tailback that it’s even possible they could match 2017′s Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, and have a pair of 1,000-yard backs. Kenny McIntosh, Kendall Milton and Daijun Edwards all look to have the right stuff to contend for that mark, assuming one of them gets enough carries. James Cook, last year’s second-leading rusher, looks to be more of a situational back, and probably is a greater threat as a pass receiver.
Speaking of those who catch passes, I always hold out hope that one of these seasons Georgia finally will get its second 1,000-yard receiver, letting someone join Terrence Edwards in that very select club among Dawgs players. One point in favor of that finally happening: In his earlier coaching stops, offensive coordinator Todd Monken had several 1,000-yard receivers.
If George Pickens hadn’t torn up his knee back in the spring, he would have been a strong contender to do just that. In his absence, Georgia does have quite a bit of talent at receiver, though a lot of them, like Pickens, are recovering or coming back from various ailments, including Jermaine Burton (hyperextended knee), Kearis Jackson (an offseason arthroscopic procedure), Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint (ankle), Arian Smith (wrist) and Dominick Blaylock (ACL). If Burton is fully recovered, he might be the most dangerous of that group, though the reliable Jackson had similar numbers to Pickens last year and also could be a contender.
Still, the receiver who might have the best shot at 1,000 yards is transfer Arik Gilbert, assuming the Marietta native lives up to the promise he showed at LSU last year before opting out. While he played tight end for the Tigers, and is starting out preseason practice with both the tight ends and wideouts at Georgia, most observers think Gilbert likely will wind up at wide receiver. G-Day star Adonai Mitchell also shows a lot of promise.
As for the tight end position, big Darnell Washington is my favorite to fulfill my wish for a new breakout offensive star. Given enough chances to catch the ball, he’s likely to be the kind of coverage mismatch that Kyle Pitts was last year for the Gators.
Of course, quarterback Daniels is on my wish list, too. However, I don’t think the Heisman Trophy is a very realistic goal at this point (though sportsbettingdime.com has him in fourth place on its board currently, with 12-1 odds (an improvement from 24-1 a week earlier).
No, my main wish involving Daniels (besides him staying healthy) is for him to have season passing numbers approaching the 3,893 yards UGA record-holder Aaron Murray threw for in the 2012 season.
While it’s true Daniels’ impressive numbers in his four games as starter last year came against lesser defenses, the AJC’s Chip Towers pointed out recently that, if you extrapolated his numbers from those four games over a 12-game season, his “hypothetical passing numbers of 3,693 yards, 30 touchdowns and six interceptions, along with a 67% completion percentage, are eye-popping, to say the least.”
With Daniels having gone through spring training, and worked that much longer with Monken and his receivers, it’s not unreasonable to think Georgia might have a 3,000-yard passing QB this season.
Of course, another wish you’ll no doubt find on every Dawgs fan’s list is that the still-unsettled offensive line, which is missing a couple of starters from last year, comes together quickly. The main question is whether returning senior Jamaree Salyer winds up holding down the left-tackle spot that is so crucial to a successful passing game, or another player steps up at that spot and allows Salyer to move to his more natural position of left guard, as he did in the bowl game. Either way, I want to see the Dawgs manhandle some defensive fronts. I like the way my friend Kevin Whaley put it in a recent Junkyard Blawg: “The inability to push people around consistently, and run it when we want to run it, makes it harder for the pass protection to hold up.”
So, my main wish involving the OL is for Georgia no longer to approach third-and-short with trepidation. I want that to be considered a nearly automatic gimme for the Dawgs, no matter how many defenders are in the box.
As for the defense, my wishes are more team-oriented, rather than focusing on any particular individual statistics. I’m hopeful that the defensive front will live up to those players’ past performance, that the edge rushers will pressure opposing quarterbacks with regularity, and that the completely rebuilt secondary (which includes a couple of key transfers in Derion Kendrick from Clemson and Tykee Smith from West Virginia) doesn’t take a step backward.
And, finally, on the other side of the coin, here’s a wish for something I don’t ever want to see again: Please, no more fourth-quarter collapses and last-second heartbreaking losses in a championship game to Alabama (or anyone else, for that matter). It has become something of a Georgia Bulldogs trademark in recent years, and I know I speak for Bulldog Nation when I say we’re completely fed-up with that scenario.
If the fates somehow can grant me all (or even most) of those wishes, I have a strong feeling there’ll be a lot of folks in red and black flooding into Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Jan. 10.
