Dang girl, are you from Tennessee? Because… I don’t really like you very much.
Tennessee week is finally here and even though modern society loves decorating for holidays way too early, it’s still too soon for that nasty pumpkin orange. Our northern bordering state and its flagship institution are weird ones, and I mean no offense to any Georgia fans that happen to reside in Tennessee. But a state that can’t even decide which time zone to be in is one I simply do not trust.
There isn’t enough room
on the internet to house everything Tennessee fans should be embarrassed about, but a select few deserve mentioning here. For starters, they aren’t even the highest ranked orange UT in their own conference. And on top of that, they don’t even own the rights to UT.edu, as the University of Tampa valiantly claimed that elusive domain. I can’t imagine.
One thing I will say is that their mascot Smokey does appear to be a good dog. And that is the only positive thing about Tennessee you will ever hear come out of my pretty little lips.
The Georgia-Tennessee series has been about as lopsided as you could imagine since Kirby Smart came in, having his Dawgs at 8-1 against the Vols in 9 contests. The lone Tennessee victory literally took a prayer.
Tennessee fans love to talk about the home-field advantage of Neyland Stadium with their 100,000+ fans and 200,000+ combined teeth, but recently that hasn’t helped them against Georgia. The good guys have won four consecutive games in Neyland Stadium by an average score of 41-10.
Those checkered endzones aren’t that impressive when you realize they only went with checkers because their fans don’t understand chess.
The only thing that helps the Vols is the miserable field condition in the stadium, where numerous Dawgs have suffered brutal lower-body injuries. In retaliation for Herschel Walker running over Bill Bates in 1980, General Neyland apparently put a curse on any Georgia player who dare play on his beloved field.
Modern-day Tennessee is known for their high-powered and high-scoring offenses under Josh Heupel, but their 2022 offense carries a lot of that weight. Led by Virginia Tech transfer QB Hendon Hooker, the Vols’ offense lit up just about every team they played in 2022 to the tune of 46.1 points per game.
But since Hooker left for the NFL, Tennessee has averaged a pedestrian 34 points per game. It seems to me that Heupel isn’t great at scoring, unless he can use the services of a Hooker.
Kirby Smart has been one of the most successful in limiting Heupel’s offenses, keeping them to under 20 points in each of their 4 meetings. These results are why Georgia fans seldomly worry about the defensive side of the ball.
The offensive side of the ball is a different story, though we may have already seen the path to success for scoring against Tennessee. In 7 of the 9 games against Tennessee under Smart, a UGA QB has recorded a rushing TD. This includes known statues Jacob Eason, Jake Fromm, and Carson Beck.
Given that Gunner Stockton’s biggest strength seems to be his mobility, combined with the fact that our passing game hasn’t developed, I expect this trend to continue this weekend.
Doing my normal research for this game has me looking up and down Tennessee’s roster, player by player. I can tell this is a classic Volunteers roster just by looking at the players’ numbers alone, because DB Kaleb Beasley is the only ten I see.
Up and down the field, Georgia has the more talented players. We have an experienced coaching staff that has won a lot of games, a team that shows up in big games, and a Head Coach that hates Tennessee as much as you and I do.
But even still, Georgia very well may lose this game.
Our offensive line is soft, injured, and not playing well when healthy anyways. Our QB has never played a road game and has seemed scared to throw the ball against lesser competition. Our best Running Back apparently has not fixed his fumble problems from last season. Our electric playmaker and leader Dillon Bell somehow has the fewest receiving yards (-2) and fewest rushing yards (-6) of anyone on the team.
But no matter what happens, at least we don’t have to be Tennessee fans.
Like most of you, my blood bleeds Georgia red. If it ever bled Tennessee orange, I’d call a doctor immediately.
Congrats on making it to the first Hate Week of the year. I love you all, and Go Dawgs.
