ATHENS, Ga. — Five months after its last home game in Athens (Kentucky, flattened), four months after its first SEC championship in 12 years (Auburn, smothered), three months after the pass-thepaperbags-we’re-hyperventilating carnival ride through the college football playoffs (Oklahoma, tipped. Alabama … DAMN’T!), Georgia played a little football Saturday.
It wasn’t a real game. It was “G-Day.”
That’s capital “G” for Georgia. Microscopic “g” for game.
Vince Dooley cared so little about this annual scrimmage that he routinely picked celebrity coaches to run the two teams so he could relax in the press box, maybe have a sandwich and only mildly pay attention. One time he picked Ted Turner. One time he picked Lewis Grizzard. One time he picked ol’ “Slick” Simon Selig, who donated $1 million to the school, and because of that, in Dooley’s words a couple of years ago, “Oh, he could call any play he wanted.”
Pretty sure we’ll never see Kirby Smart picking celebrity coaches. The Georgia coach wouldn’t let anybody call any play or make any decision for anything this side of a game of cornhole. As the “Red” and “Black” teams alternated possessions, Smart walked from one side of the field to the other, wearing Switzerland white, barking instructions.
Everything is important now.
Maybe that's why an estimated 82,000 people showed up for Saturday's scrimmage. Maybe that's why nearly a quarter of a million fans have shown up for three spring games since Smart's arrival, including an SEC record 93,000 in 2016. Maybe that's why Georgia made it to the national
championship game in Smart's third season as head coach — leading 20-7 in the third quarter butlosing 26-23 in overtime because, well, there are limits to sports joy in the state of Georgia.
That expectations are high in Athens is a decades-old tradition. That the expectations have some substance behind them these days is a relatively new phenomenon. Georgia’s over/under win projection for the regular season is 10 ½ (out of 12) and, with their schedule, there’s no reason they shouldn’t at least make it back to the SEC championship game.
This assumes the Bulldogs look better offensively in the fall than they did to end the spring. In the annual game-doesn’t-matter, the “Black” team (mostly quarterbacked by freshman Justin Fields) defeated the “Red” team (Jake Fromm) 21-13.
Statistics don’t matter in exhibitions. But since 82,000 people showed up and you need something to fret over between now and September, here goes: Fromm (19 for 38) threw two interceptions, including a pick-six, against the No. 1 defense but rescued his day with a late-game touchdown pass.Fields (18 for 33) looked like a freshman with some good, some bad and some good against the No.2 defense and threw one interception. Each had a touchdown pass.
The two defenses were credited with 11 sacks (seven on Fields). But that was at least in part to offensive inefficiency and predictably with the lack of many running plays.
Don’t panic. It’s only April. Wait until at least June.
Cox Media Group