Georgia opens season with 45-0 rout of Austin Peay

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia’s football program got exactly what it paid for.

The Bulldogs opened a season of high expectations Saturday with a 45-0 win over Austin Peay, an overmatched opponent that was paid $500,000 by UGA to make the trip from Clarksville, Tenn., to Sanford Stadium.

Georgia scored the first six times it had the ball to build a 38-0 lead by halftime, about what you might expect when an SEC team ranked No. 3 in the nation plays a team from the FCS-level Ohio Valley Conference.

Highlights included a 73-yard touchdown run by celebrated transfer wide receiver Demetris Robertson on his first touch as a Georgia player and a 59-yard pass from Jake Fromm to Mecole Hardman, whose speed overwhelmed Austin Peay’s secondary.

Fromm, UGA’s starting quarterback, completed 12 of 16 passes for 157 yards and two touchdowns. Highly anticipated freshman Justin Fields made his UGA debut by completing seven of eight passes for 63 yards.

Fields entered the game on Georgia’s fourth series, with the Bulldogs up 17-0 early in the second quarter, and gave the ball to  Robertson on 3rd-and-2 at the Bulldogs’ 28-yard line. The transfer from Cal ran 72 yards down the right side for the score.

Attendance was announced at a stadium-capacity 92,746 on a hot afternoon. Many fans saw all they needed to see in the first half, and the stadium appeared half-empty by the third quarter.

With the Bulldogs leading 45-0 at the end of the third quarter, an announcement was made that the fourth quarter would be shortened by five minutes to 10 minutes.

In the final quarter, however, Georgia freshman tailback James Cook was called for targeting while covering a punt. Cook, who had 66 yards rushing on six carries, was ejected from the game and will have to sit out the first half of the next one at South Carolina.

In their first game without the celebrated tailback tandem of Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, both of whom completed their eligibility last season and moved on to the NFL, Georgia had 284 yards rushing.

Georgia’s defense limited Austin Peay to 152 yards and seven first downs.

The Bulldogs settled for a 34-yard Rodrigo Blankenship on their first possession of the game but scored touchdowns on the next five. In addition to the big plays by Robertson and Hardman, Georgia scored first-half touchdowns on a 10-yard pass from Fromm to Riley Ridley; an 8-yard run by D’Andre Swift on the first play after an Austin Peay fumble; and a 17-yard run by Elijah Holyfield.

Georgia tacked on a third-quarter touchdown on a 12-yard pass from Fields to Isaac Nauta.

The game opened with something of a historic change: The Bulldogs ran onto the field from the west end of the stadium from their fancy new locker room.

That marked the first time in at least 60 years, probably longer, that the Bulldogs didn’t come into Sanford Stadium from the east end, where the team’s former locker room was located.

UGA spokesman Claude Felton said the Bulldogs had taken the field from the east end since at least the 1950s. That may have been the case all the way back to the stadium’s opening in 1929, although Georgia officials haven’t been able to confirm for certain about the 1940s and earlier.

Saturday’s game was the first of three this season in which Georgia will play a team from outside the five power conferences.

The other such games are against lower-tier FBS opponents, Middle Tennessee on Sept. 15 and Massachusetts on Nov. 17. Georgia will pay Middle Tennessee $1.7 million and will pay UMass $1.5 million as part of a deal that also included a home-and-home basketball series. FCS teams, such as Austin Peay, require smaller payments, making Saturday a bargain for the Bulldogs.

Cox Media Group