Here's everything you need to know about our opponent, Austin Peay, heading into tomorrow's game:
Nothing.
Seriously, you don't need any information on the Governors. This game isn't about Austin Peay, it isn't about their prolific FCS offense, and it isn't about the fact that they have a player named James Bond. Not even that amazing fact deserves to take up your attention.
This game is about Georgia. All last season we heard about how the Atlanta Falcons were going to struggle from their Super Bowl hangover after giving up the worst comeback in Super Bowl history. Surprisingly, the narrative surrounding Georgia has been much more positive this offseason.
I imagine the stellar success in recruiting has a lot to do with that, since the Dawgs wrapped up a number one class to go on top of the already amazing stable of talent waiting in the wings. It could just be the nature of the game, one of those quirky differences between the college game and the professional game, or it could be that the outlook on Georgia is much more positive in the long term.
The college football landscape is watching Georgia and expecting great things. Maybe this year, maybe next, I don't know, but people are now watching and expecting Georgia to hoist that little trophy sooner rather than later.
(Speaking of the Sooners, how was that Rose Bowl game for you guys?)
Don't cry. Don't let it in. Don't cry. (Photo by Sydney Sims on Unsplash)
All that aside, the last thing we saw on the field for Georgia football was the single-most excruciating moment in this team's history. We saw Alabama complete a second-and-eternity during overtime to win the national championship, and we saw two of the finest players the University has ever hosted kneel in tears for their last time wearing a Bulldog jersey.
That wasn't how it was supposed to end, but that's what happened.
This game tomorrow is about one thing: Getting back on the bike.
This team needs another chance to prove that they can win football games. Sure, beating Austin Peay isn't going to do anything. When the Falcons kicked off last season, it was with wins over other NFL teams, including a huge win over the Green Bay Packers in Week 2. They got to prove to themselves and the rest of the league that they could win a game against a real opponent.
Beating Austin Peay isn't going to prove much to the football world, especially since we've all seen bad teams go out and deliver brilliant performances against underwhelming competition. But it will be a chance for the Bulldogs to be back on the field, to put on a real jersey, to win a real game, and to hit a real opponent.
Have you ever taken a bite of something awful? Perhaps a particularly terrible bite of cheese that's gone foul? Oh, that's the worst. It just leaves you retching and trying to squeeze that awful flavor out of your mouth, but nothing will do it. Nothing can scratch that hideous taste out of your tongue's memory.
What did you finally do to get over that bad taste? Drinking water didn't fix it. You had to take another bite of something good.
I remember during the 2005 season when the Dawgs went into Jacksonville undefeated with a chance to lock up the SEC East with a win over Florida. But without our regular starting QB, DJ Shockley, since he'd been injured the week before in the waning seconds of homecoming against Arkansas.
When we lost to Florida 14-10, a game we should have won, we had to sit through the bye week just waiting and agonizing over our next chance to play a real game and to get that awful taste out of our mouths.
True, we lost that next game to Auburn in what would surely be the craziest fourth-down completion the Tigers would ever have against us. Can you imagine them ever hitting a long fourth-down pass down the field again in the last two minutes of a huge game? I sure can't.
But those two weeks after losing to Florida in 2005 were terrible just because you knew it would be two weeks before you had a chance to beat someone else. Even a chance!
Losing the championship game to Bama this past year was similar, but much worse, just because you knew it would be a whole year before we could try and get back there, and it would be almost as long before we could just win a football game. Any football game.
Beating Austin Peay tomorrow matters because it's the first step towards getting back to where we belong. There's no glory in whipping up on a team like this, but it can be nice to get the pieces in place before playing a conference game. There's no 30-for-30 waiting to be made in honor of a UGA victory over Austin Peay.
This game is about taking care of business and getting focused for the long road ahead. It's the first win of 15.
Admittedly, I'm not so sure that this is Georgia's year, but why not? We should finish the regular season 11-1 at worst, as long as we do what we're capable of, and we could very well reach the SEC Championship game with a 12-0 record. If we do that, we'll likely face Bama again and, make no mistake, we will have to beat them eventually. Especially since we'd have to beat LSU and Auburn to finish 12-0, so that right there makes the West a little easier for Bama to win.
If we can beat Bama, we're in the playoff and anything can happen. If we beat Bama, we have a team that's good enough to beat anyone.
But that's a long way down the line, and I don't want to be in a position where I'm unable to enjoy this season unless it ends in a championship.
It all starts tomorrow. It all starts with Austin Peay. This game is about Georgia, and this game is about doing what Georgia needs to do in order to stay in position to achieve that ultimate goal.
Three Picks and a Score
Now last year I started a tradition where I made three obscenely specific predictions for each game, just for the fun of it, along with a score prediction. Let's get this started with Austin Peay and my three picks:
- Seven different Bulldogs will score a touchdown. On a pass, the receiver and the QB each count as one.
- Austin Peay will score a touchdown on one of their first three possessions.
- There will be as many offensive players with receiving yards as rushing yards for Georgia.
And now for the score. Georgia wins big, 52-10.
Do you have any thoughts on the upcoming game, or any thoughts on the article? Want to leave a "Three Picks and a Score" of your own? Throw them down in the comments below! I can't wait to hear what y'all think about the pending kickoff for the 2018 UGA football season!