Would you like to receive DawgNation news alerts? Excellent! News alerts will be displayed in your browser.

Good Day, UGA: The ‘Mo Money Mo Problems’ edition

Maurice Smith's pick-6 of Sean White was the decisive play in Georgia's 13-7 upset of Auburn.
Andy Harrison
Cy Brown
Cy Brown

Good day, UGA. Welcome to your one-stop shop for all the relevant UGA football news and takes every Monday through Friday. In today’s edition, we relive Georgia’s 13-7 upset of Auburn. Is there any way to get Maurice Smith an extra year of eligibility?

What they said about Georgia

Everyone can breathe a little easier about Georgia’s season and the future under Kirby Smart now that he has a signature win. And the pressure around Smart was relieved not only because the Bulldogs upset No. 9 Auburn, but also by how they did it. Smart came into this job with the implicit promise that he would turn Georgia’s defense into an Alabama doppelgänger. He lived up to that promise yesterday, as the team allowed no first downs in the second half. The national press also heaped plaudits on Smart and his Bulldogs.

Georgia’s upset was enough for USA Today’s Paul Myerberg to name it one of his winners this week:

Kirby Smart landed the first marquee win of his young tenure at Georgia, leading the Bulldogs to a 13-7 win against one of the nation’s hottest teams in Auburn. The Tigers had been chewing up defenses in and out of league play for nearly two months, moving into the top 10 in each major poll and creating a potential winner-take-all scenario with rival Alabama in the Iron Bowl. That scenario is now dead.

Steve Lassan of Athlon Sports had Georgia all over his SEC Week 11 awards. He named Mel Tucker coordinator of the week, Maurice Smith unsung hero of the week and Georgia the team of the week:

First-year coach Kirby Smart picked up the biggest SEC win of his tenure on Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs leaned on their defense to slow down Auburn’s high-powered offense, with defensive back Maurice Smith scoring the only touchdown for Georgia on Saturday, while the offense did just enough to score the 13-7 upset.

While most pundits praised Georgia’s defensive effort, Sports Illustrated’s Colin Becht was complimentary of the offense for making plays in important spots:

[A]s Auburn’s offense sputtered, Georgia capitalized by wearing down a Tigers defense that could never get much time off the field. Finally, after seven drives ended in either an interception or a punt, the Bulldogs broke through. Nick Chubb found some running room and true freshman quarterback Jacob Eason completed some clutch passes, including two third-down completions to move the chains, to set up kicker Rodrigo Blankenship for a 45-yard field goal in the fourth quarter.

Here’s a sample of the talk about Georgia on Twitter:

Top Dawgs

  1. Maurice Smith – What more is there to say about Smith’s performance against Auburn? He, quite simply, won the game for Georgia. He had the vision to jump in front of Sean White’s pass and the skill to maneuver his way into the end zone. It would’ve been nice to get more than one year out of Smith, but I’ve enjoyed the hell out of watching him play.

    “He’s unstoppable.”

  2. Riley Ridley – Ridley has shown glimpses of brilliance this season, mostly from his route-running. However, he’s dropped way too many passes this year. On Saturday, he showed the potential to be a special player and top target for Jacob Eason the next few years. The freshman had 3 catches for 89 yards, and one of those catches was absolutely bonkers.

  3. Roquan Smith – Smith has been a beast in his sophomore campaign, and the Auburn game was one of his best. He finished with 7 tackles, 3 solo, to lead all Georgia tacklers. His ability to move sideline to sideline and snuff out runs before they begin is one reason the Bulldogs had so much success against Auburn’s run game.
  4. Jacob Eason – It was far from Eason’s best performance as a Bulldog, but he had his moments, passing for 208 yards on 20 completions. His deep ball looked more accurate than last week as well, perhaps a sign that he recognized his timing was off and worked on it in practice.
  5. Nick Chubb – Chubb didn’t go off like Georgia fans hoped or expected him to, but he had a solid game. The junior rushed for a quiet 101 yards and gained yards when Georgia really needed it.

ICYMI

Relive the upset

Pick 6️⃣ #AUBvsUGA #GoDawgs

A video posted by Georgia New Media (@hunkerdown_uga) on

Butterfingers

A photo posted by Jacob Eason (@skinnyqb10) on

The spread

Georgia is more than a three-touchdown favorite against Louisiana-Lafayette this weekend.

Dawgs in the NFL

  • Blair Walsh missed his fourth extra point of the season as Minnesota fell 26-20 to Washington, the Vikings’ fourth consecutive loss after starting the season 5-0. The Vikings held kicker tryouts last week, a sign that they’re ready to move on from Walsh. His miss on Sunday only will fuel that speculation.
  • Alec Ogletree led the Rams in tackles with 10 and added 2 passes defensed as L.A. defeated the Jets 9-6. Todd Gurley had 64 yards on 21 carries for the winning team. Jordan Jenkins had 3 tackles for the Jets.
  • Ramik Wilson had 5 tackles, and Chris Conley had 12 yards receiving in the Chiefs’ 20-17 win over the Panthers. Thomas Davis had 7 tackles, and Charles Johnson had 5 tackles and .5 sacks for Carolina.
  • Leonard Floyd recorded 1.5 sacks for Chicago in a 36-10 loss to Tampa Bay.

Around campus

  • The men’s basketball team fell to Clemson 74-64 in its season opener on Friday. Yante Maten led Georgia scorers with 19 points.
  • The Lady Dawgs fared much better than the men on their opening weekend. The started the season on Friday with a 64-50 win over South Carolina State and followed it up on Sunday by beating Mercer 72-64.

  • Georgia volleyball suffered a pair of losses this weekend, falling 3-2 to LSU on Friday in Baton Rouge and losing 3-0 to Texas A&M in College Station on Sunday.
  • The football team wasn’t the only one to beat Auburn. Georgia equestrian defeated the Tigers 11-7 on Friday.

Good dog

Onward.

NEXT Sentell’s Intel: How do the 5-stars and the other big names feel about UGA now?
Get Breaking News Fast!
Download the new DawgNation app.
Get it on the AppStore
Get it on Google Play

Listen to daily DawgNation podcast

We have a new way to comment on our DawgNation stories. To do so, you must be a registered user on the DawgNation forum. If you haven’t registered, please go to the Forum homepage on DawgNation and look for “register” on the right side.