Georgia and Nate Frazier had something in common Saturday besides a win over Clemson.
The Dawgs, like Frazier, mostly looked great in the Aflac Kickoff Game at a sold-out Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. But as Kirby Smart said of the freshman running back in a post-game interview with ABC’s Molly McGrath, “He’s got a long way to go.”
Likewise, this year’s Georgia team notched a big win against a ranked opponent in its first game of the season, but an extremely challenging schedule lies ahead.
Frazier lived up to his advance billing in the dominant 34-3 victory over 14th-ranked Clemson and ended the day as UGA’s leading rusher. However, as Smart made clear in his comments to McGrath, Georgia expects a lot more of its backs than just carrying the ball. To drive the point home, the head coach lavished praise on another of the Dawgs’ running backs, Cash Jones, for his work as a blocker on one play, picking up a blitz as he protected quarterback Carson Beck from an oncoming pass rusher. (Jones also scored a touchdown on a great run, complete with a classic stiff-arm move.)
There’s no denying, though, that Frazier’s running was impressive, with great cuts and bursts of speed. The freshman’s pass blocking might keep a lid on his ability to be on the field all time, but he injected some much-needed energy into Georgia’s rushing attack against the Tigers.
The young back from Compton, California, who has drawn comparisons to Georgia great D’Andre Swift, ran for 83 yards and 1 touchdown on 11 carries in his collegiate debut. He also had a 24-yard catch in the second half, to give him 107 all-purpose yards.
However, during his post-game press conference, Smart tried not to overdo the praise. Talking about first-year players like Frazier and defensive back KJ Bolden playing in the season’s first game, he noted: “If you are a talented freshman, and you can learn, then you can play.”
Smart also declined to say where he thinks Frazier will land in the pecking order of Georgia running backs, adding that “there’s no depth chart. We play the guys that have the best week in practice.”
Frazier, Jones and starter Branson Robinson, who missed last year with an injury, had to shoulder the load Saturday against the Tigers, as expected first-string back Travis Etienne, a Florida transfer, remained on the sideline, even though he was suited up for play.
It obviously was a suspension, though Smart still refused to confirm it, saying to a querying reporter: “You know we don’t talk about those things. It was a good try, though.”
Smart did say of Frazier: “He’s a great kid. He got an opportunity; he seized the moment.
I think we can expect big things from Frazier. The same can be said of Georgia’s team as a whole. There’s no doubt about the elite talent Smart has assembled, and if the No. 1-ranked Dawgs can learn from their mistakes in the opener (all of which looked easily correctable, as commentator Greg McElroy said during the ABC broadcast), this team could go all the way.
Back to the running game, though, which Smart admitted to ABC was “struggling” for most of the first half, as Georgia’s offensive line was having a tough time against Clemson’s stout defensive front early on, and Beck seemed a little uneasy in the pocket facing the Tigers’ pass rush.
It also didn’t help the running game that the Georgia passing attack was a bit tentative at first — Beck blamed “a little bit of nerves” on the part of some of the offensive players for the scoreless first quarter. Georgia didn’t really challenge downfield much, allowing the Tigers’ defense to crowd the box.
There also were typical first-game mistakes (both teams had big gains wiped out by careless penalties).
And both defenses played extremely well in the first half; hence, the 6-0 lead Georgia had at the intermission, when it looked like the game might be a low-scoring replay of the defensive struggle we saw last time these two teams met, when the Dawgs took a 10-3 win.
However, by the third quarter, Georgia’s offense had settled down, the passing game was clicking and that loosened up Clemson’s run defense. Georgia finished with 163 rushing yards on 24 attempts (a 6.8 yards-per-run average).
Meanwhile, the Dawgs’ passing game also looked impressive in the second half, with a couple of transfer receivers, Colbie Young from Miami and London Humphreys from Vanderbilt, having several big catches between them, including for touchdowns. And, as expected, receiver-running back Dillon Bell looked good and speedster Arian Smith was used much more extensively than last year; Georgia’s coaches obviously think any play where the ball is in his hands is a potential explosive gain.
Nine Bulldogs caught at least one pass, with Smith leading the way with 5 receptions for 56 yards. Bell was next with 4 catches for 32 yards. Humphreys snagged a 40-yard TD catch to put the Bulldogs up 27-3, finishing with 2 receptions for 63 yards, and tight end Lawson Luckie had 2 catches for 37 yards, including a career-long 31-yarder.
Beck, who completed 23 of 33 passing for 278 yards and 2 touchdowns, mostly had a very good game. He was on the mark on some difficult passes and extended some plays by keeping the ball himself.
After the game, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said that “one of my concerns going into the game, was if we let [Beck] hold the ball on 3rd-and-long, he’ll find ‘em. And he did. He made a couple huge plays on 3rd-and-long.”
Overall, the Georgia offense racked up 447 yards, and the Dawgs’ defense held the Tigers to just 188 yards. Georgia’s leading tackler was linebacker Jalon Walker, who seemed to be all over the field Saturday and wound up with 6 tackles overall, 1 tackle for loss and 1.5 sacks.
Defensively, I particularly was impressed when the Georgia defense blew up the Clemson backfield and somehow got out of 2nd-and-short to force a punt. They did a great job winning short-yardage downs.
The defensive play of the game, though, was an interception by Malaki Starks that looked like a replay of his first interception on the same field against Oregon in 2022.
Smart told ABC that the pick by Starks “was elite. He reminds me of Champ [Bailey] when Champ played.”
Smart added later that the interception “may be one of the best defensive football plays I’ve ever seen live in person. I’ve seen a lot of them on TV, but that one, he twisted and contorted his body, and how he can find the ability to go find that ball and get it, it’s pretty special.”
Special teams play for Georgia also was excellent Saturday, with Peyton Woodring perfect in his 4 PATs and 2 field goal attempts (including a 55-yarder, a career long), punter Brett Thorson averaged 48 yards, with a long of 57 yards, and continued his string of having no returns of his booming kicks; and all but one of Woodring’s kickoffs were touchbacks. Anthony Evans had three punt returns for 23 yards.
Really, the only questionable special-teams play I saw was one punt reception by Evans, who was dangerously unbalanced stretching for a catch. Fortunately, it wasn’t a disaster, but he wasn’t fundamentally sound there.
The officiating saw some questionable calls and non-calls, though the refs also picked up a couple of flags, deciding there weren’t infractions on those plays after all, including a potential targeting call against the Dawgs that was not supported by video replay.
Georgia did suffer several injuries, though it appeared that none of them was major. One of particular concern was pass rusher Mykel Williams, who left the game in the second half with a hurt ankle after a cheap-shot low block that drew a flag (and, in my opinion, should have been called as targeting).
Overall, the defense was excellent, the offense was impressive after the slow start, Frazier made a stunning debut, and Young and Humphreys showed why Smart took them from the transfer portal.
Asked to look ahead to possible future games for the Dawgs in Atlanta this season (the SEC Championship, a playoff game and the national championship game), Beck noted that “the biggest thing for us is to just be consistent … and not get complacent.”
Added Walker: “We focus on each game individually. We don’t skip ahead in the season. We don’t backtrack. … I feel like we do a great job of keeping the main thing the main thing.”
The Dawgs also continued some impressive trends Saturday, winning their 40th consecutive regular season game (a school record). They now have won 8 of the past 9 games against Clemson, Georgia is 17-2 versus ranked teams since the start of the 2021 season, and the Dawgs opened a season with a win for the 11th year in a row. The Bulldogs are 47-2 in their past 49 games.
CELEBRATING UGA OLYMPIANS
My friend Jason Hasty, the athletics history specialist at UGA’s Hargrett Library in Athens, has a new exhibit, “Bulldog Olympians: A Celebration of UGA’s Olympic History,” opening this Friday in the Special Collections building on campus. Said Jason: “Feel free to stop by and see some fun artifacts and photos from Georgia’s Olympians. … I had a really fun time curating this one,” with the help of former swimming coach Jack Bauerle and John Frierson of the UGA Athletic Association.
