If you approached Saturday’s G-Day Game expecting to be surprised, you might have been disappointed.
However, the old Holiday Inn slogan, “the best surprise is no surprise,” probably is the best thing we could have hoped for at the intrasquad game that wrapped up spring practice for the defending national champions.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t any standout moments or players in the game but, in most cases, it was more a matter of living up to expectations, rather than exceeding them.
The exception was much-delayed LSU transfer tight end Arik Gilbert, who looked better than we had a right to expect from a player who hadn’t played in a game in about a year and a half, scoring twice for the Black team, which won the game 26-23.
With Brock Bowers and Darnell Washington held out of the spring as they recover from surgery, Gilbert got a chance to show fully what he could do. His first two catches went for touchdowns. His third catch, a 27-yarder late in the game, set up the winning field goal. He looked like a potential game-changer.
The Red team’s Oscar Delp also looked very promising. It’s going to be tough for offensive coordinator Todd Monken to find enough playing time for all those tight ends this fall!
Coaches don’t really like blowouts in intrasquad games (every success also is a failure), so Kirby Smart was quite pleased with the closeness of this year’s G-Day. “It was a really competitive game, kind of a back-and-forth game,” he said at his post-game press conference. “We want it to be as much action, close, game coming down to the wire, not so much for you guys or the fans but for us. I don’t think you get better in games that are lopsided; you get better in competitive action. We tried to make that happen as much as possible.”
As for Gilbert, Smart praised him as “a really tough, physical player that’s done a good job. I’m more proud of the practices he had leading up to today than today. Today was a little bit icing on the cake.” At the same time, Smart said, Gilbert is “not where he needs to be, either. There were two missed assignments where he didn’t block a guy that in the run game could kill us.”
Overall, the game mostly was an offensive showcase.
Again, that was no surprise; we knew going in that the Dawgs’ offense will enter the fall season loaded with talent, while the rebuilding defense — which lost some amazing players to the NFL — is more of a question mark. Nothing we saw Saturday really changed that perception — although the No. 1 defense (playing for the Red team against the No. 1 offense on the Black team) generally looked a bit ahead of schedule.
Indeed, the No. 1 defensive line stuffed a few of the Blacks’ infrequent running plays, and also batted down several passes at the line of scrimmage.
Looking ahead, there can’t help but be some drop-off from last year’s generational defense, but this year’s D is likely to be solid.
While the game was pass-heavy for both teams, as G-Days usually are under Smart — “We’re not trying to feature the running game in the spring game,” UGA’s head coach told ESPN’s Greg McElroy on the field during the 3rd quarter — the offensive play-calling was a bit less vanilla than expected. (There was even a double-pass trick play, though the ball thrown by receiver Dominick Blaylock unfortunately was picked off.)
Monken probably was using a bit more of the playbook than usual, in order to assess his quarterbacks.
Even then, it wasn’t quite like a real game. As Smart pointed out, “when you put them in a situation where it’s pass-happy type environment, it changes the D-line’s demeanor, so there’s no real run game to slow guys down and everybody is pinning their ears back. … It wasn’t a play-action type day; it was a drop-back pass type day.”
Plus, as my brother Tim pointed out, in an intrasquad game, “it’s hard to tell about the QBs, since the defense pretty much knew what play was being run.”
As for the QBs, quite often the prime focus of fans in the spring game, Saturday went much as I figured it would, although Carson Beck seemed farther ahead of Brock Vandagriff in the battle to be Stetson Bennett’s backup than I had expected. Beck started for the Reds, while Vandagriff was backing up Bennett. In the second half, both Beck and Vandagriff switched teams for a while, and the latter looked better when he was going against the No. 2 defense.
For the day, Bennett (who only played for the Blacks) completed 15 of 35 passes for 273 yards and 3 TDs, plus 2 picks. Beck completed 14 of 26 for 274 yards (mostly for the Reds). Vandagriff made 12 of 26 for 115 yards, and freshman Gunner Stockton, who only played briefly, completed 1 of his 3 passes for 9 yards.
Delp was the Reds’ leading receiver, with 7 catches for 91 yards. Blaylock, also playing for the Reds, looked to be getting back to his pre-injury form, with 5 catches for 67 yards. And, speedster Arian Smith had 3 catches for 83 yards for the Red team.
For the Blacks, Kearis Jackson caught 4 passes for 107 yards, McIntosh snagged 4 for 48, and Gilbert had his 3, for 49 yards and two scores.
Since the emphasis was on the passing game (the Blacks only rushed for a net 18 yards, while the Reds had 87), we didn’t get much of a feel for the running game, but Kenny McIntosh, Kendall Milton and Daijun Edwards all had their moments, and both McIntosh and Milton also caught long downfield passes, with Milton, in particular, looking impressive as he broke several tackles to score on a 32-yarder.
Rushing for the Blacks, McIntosh finished with 6 runs for 25 yards and Milton had 6 for 14 yards, while the Reds were led by Vandagriff’s 3 scrambles for 45 yards, with Edwards getting 27 yards on 8 carries, including 2 touchdowns on outside runs.
Of course, some fans remain in the Stetson-never mode, and they’ll no doubt make much of Beck’s comparable passing numbers, but keep in mind that most of Beck’s time behind center was against the second-team defense, and, while he looked good throwing the ball generally, he did have a few bad passes.
Bennett generally looked good and seemed in command most of the time. He did throw two interceptions, but his first pick, at the end of the first half, was sort of a mini-Hail Mary thrown up for grabs on the final play. However, on the other pick, thrown in the second half, Bennett was off-target, as he was a couple of other times. But, he also made some excellent throws, particularly on the long pass to Jackson on the final drive that set up the winning field goal.
In other words, as my brother put it afterward, “pretty much his usual play.”
Which, of course, was good enough to win a national championship. Asked about naming a starting QB, Smart said: “Our team knows Stetson is our quarterback. … Stetson has done a tremendous job. Stetson has been an incredible leader, done what we’ve asked. … Stetson knows where he stands on our team.”
So much so, that Bennett joked after the game about the annual team “bet” over the outcome, with the winning Black team getting steak and lobster for dinner, and the losing Red team dining on beanie weenies. “We are trying to make sure Carson [Beck] eats beanie weenies,” Bennett said, “because he said once he switched teams in the second half he was going to go with the winning one. We were like, ‘No … you’re with the Red team.’”
Meanwhile, special teams play was limited, as usual in a spring game (returns were whistled dead), but Jack Podlesny made 3 of 4 field goal attempts for the Reds, and Jared Zirkle made both of his field goal tries for the Blacks, including the game-winner with 2 seconds left on the clock. He did have one PAT blocked. Australian punter Bret Thorson averaged 37.5 yards for the Blacks, and Noah Jones averaged 32 yards for the Reds.
All in all, it was a successful G-Day. There were 68,002 tickets sold at $5 each for the game, although there appeared to be fewer fans than that actually in the stands at Sanford Stadium, probably due to rainy weather early in the day. Also watching was an ESPN2 national audience.
And, a couple of highlights for fans in attendance came when the Braves’ mascot, Blooper, joined the Spike Squad, and, when those players from the 2021 team who’ve moved on got their national championship rings between the first and second quarters. The rings, like the players, are very impressive — and very large!
Let me hear from you!
I’ll dip into the Junkyard Mail next week, so let me know what you thought of the spring game, and feel free to share your views on the upcoming season, by emailing me at junkyardblawg@gmail.com.
