The questions being asked right now have a lot to do with the quarterback situation at Georgia. And while a lot of attention should be given to the situation, with Saturday quickly approaching, its time to look at what is going on around the quarterback.

More importantly, who is protecting said quarterback.

Last Saturday, the Georgia offensive line faced a smaller, quicker Appalachian State defense. A little bit of math shows that the average weight of the Mountaineer’s starting defensive line comes in at 258 pounds; this number was taken through averaging all starting defensive linemen for App State against Georgia on Sept. 2.

Now if you do the same process for the Notre Dame defensive line that started against Temple last Saturday, the Fighting Irish’s four-man defensive line packs on another thirty pounds to its average weight than that of App State, with the starting line averaging a weight of nearly 290 pounds.

More so, with the addition of another lineman and the all-around bigger athletes that Notre Dame brings, Georgia’s offensive line now has over 350 more pounds to deal with on the line of scrimmage come Saturday in South Bend.
It’s a lot of numbers, I know, but it could be something of significance, as Notre Dame will possibly look to stop Georgia’s run game come Saturday.

But all of this about Notre Dame’s size hasn’t been able to faze Georgia’s offensive players yet.

“Our approach going into this game is to dominate the line of scrimmage,” Sony Michel said.

And yes, that is a pretty normal game strategy for any team, but for Georgia to find success on Saturday, it is something that really needs to happen.

The Fighting Irish defensive line registered two sacks, six tackles for a loss and two quarterback hurries last Saturday in the team’s 49-16 win over Temple. However, while the line held its own at the line of scrimmage, the Notre Dame secondary showed a few weaknesses in the open field, blowing coverage on a few plays through out the game.

This could prove to be important knowledge for freshman quarterback Jake Fromm when Notre Dame tries to shut down Georgia’s run game with a bigger defensive line.

“Every game we go into they are going to try and stop the run. I think that is every team’s main focus. It’s our focus on our defense to stop the run,” Michel said. “But at the same time we have a quarterback that has been practicing. He has been throwing the ball, that’s why he’s a quarterback. I think he is going to do fine.”

And while the question was asked to a few other offensive players if there were any adjustments the team had been trying to make in preparation to face a bigger defensive line, the answer was simple: none.

“We are not really game-plan specific,” Jackson Harris said about the Georgia offense. “Compared to last week it’s just a different style of team.”

And while this “style” includes an added 350 pounds to go up against come Saturday, it’s ultimately just a test for what the Georgia offensive line will see down the road.

“Last week it was smaller, quicker guys and this week its bigger guys,” Harris said. “It will be more like what we will face every week in the SEC.”