Trying to draw meaningful conclusions from a college spring intrasquad game is tough.
It’s like two people discussing an abstract painting — what one person thinks they see in it might be completely different from what the other person thinks they see. And, frequently, neither is what the artist envisioned when he painted it.
That’s the nature of scrimmages such as Georgia’s G-Day game, where a single team is divided up into two competing sides, with one (in this case, the Red team) having the No. 1 offense and the No. 2 defense while its opponent (the Black team) had the No. 1 defense and the No. 2 offense.
Not surprisingly, most coaches, including UGA’s Kirby Smart, prefer it when their spring games are decided by a close score. After all, every great offensive play can be viewed as a poor defensive play (though, as Smart noted after Saturday’s game, that’s not always the case) and every great defensive play can be viewed as an offensive failure.
And since everyone playing in Saturday’s game at Sanford Stadium was a Georgia Bulldog, runaway spring games are both a win and a loss.
It gets even more confusing when players switch sides during the game, as several did Saturday, including quarterback Ryan Puglisi, who started for and mainly played for the Blacks but also played some for the Reds.
Fortunately for Smart and his staff, Saturday’s game was closer than its final score — with the Reds winning 34-17 — might indicate.
There also were a lot of new names for fans to keep track of, with 25 first-year players on the Dawgs’ spring roster.
Even those fans whose interest in the 2025 G-Day game was centered on the “battle” between quarterbacks Puglisi and Gunner Stockton were left with some uncertainty after Saturday.
In a pass-heavy game (as most G-Days are under Smart), Stockton, the veteran playing in his fourth spring game at UGA and the favorite to be this fall’s starter, completed 17 of 34 passes for 309 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. His longest completion of the day covered 49 yards.
Meanwhile, presumptive backup Puglisi, playing in his first G-Day contest, completed a combined 23 of 49 passes for 224 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception, with his longest completion going 50 yards. He also had one whistle-sack. (Game rules did not allow QBs to be hit.) Most of Puglisi’s numbers were with the Black team, but he completed all 3 of the passes he threw for the Reds, 1 of them for a TD.
Stockton still looks like the probable starter, but the gap between the two QBs doesn’t appear insurmountable.
(Two other quarterbacks played briefly for the Blacks, with redshirt-freshman third-stringer Colter Ginn completing both his passes, including a 50-yarder and a TD pass to London Humphreys.)
It’s worth noting that both defenses made interceptions in the secondary (Daniel Harris had one for the Black team and Dominick Kelly snagged one for the Reds that he returned 31 yards) and both successfully pressured the quarterbacks.
Generally, Saturday saw solid defense played. Linebacker C.J. Allen led the Black defense with 8 tackles, including 3 for loss while linebacker Justin Williams led the Reds with 9 stops, 3 of them behind the line of scrimmage
And, most notable of all, the defenses combined to knock down or break up 16 passes. Amazingly, most of those were passes batted down at the line of scrimmage, which speaks well for Georgia’s prospects on the defensive front and, I guess, not so well for the offensive front.
See what I mean?
When speaking of both the offensive and defensive fronts, Smart said after the game that “we’re probably not as good on the line of scrimmage as we have been in the last three to four years.” But, he added, “we’ve got time to get there, and we’ve got to get there. … There’s a lot of big bodies for us that had to be replaced, and we are not where we need to be on the line of scrimmage.”
I thought the best thing, offensively, in Saturday’s contest was that both QBs were willing to throw it downfield, and frequently. Too often last season, that wasn’t the case.
Of course, both Stockton and Puglisi missed some open receivers, though it could be argued that the considerable breeze blowing through Sanford Stadium might have made some of the balls sail on them.
As for Smart, he played it down the middle at his post-game press conference when asked to assess Stockton’s and Puglisi’s performances. “Both did some good things, and both did some poor things,” he said, “which when you get in a game environment, they need that. They need a game environment. They need a pocket. They need live.
“They need to play football, and they continue to get better. They understand they have some weapons on the outside. We had to rely on those guys to be able to make some plays. I think both those guys understand the offense. Ryan’s come a long way in what was really his first spring, and he made some nice throws.”
Stockton, Smart said, still has to work on his confidence and understanding the offense — “knowing when to take a shot, which he didn’t do a great job today; he had a couple of times he could have thrown the ball, check it down.” Also, he said, Stockton “took shots he probably didn’t have to.”
But Smart, who observed the game on the field and frequently consulted with the quarterbacks in the huddle, was pleased that both of them extended plays with their legs. Stockton gained 7 yards on 5 carries and Puglisi gainied a combined 24 yards on 6 carries for the two teams.
The weapons that Smart was referring to when talking about the QBs are the wide receivers and tight ends, who, he said, “made some plays today.”
Although, yes, there were a few drops, the receiving corps generally played considerably better than last season. Dylan Bell led the victorious Red receivers with 5 catches for 78 yards, including 30 yards gained after the catch and a long reception of 49 yards.
Sacovie White, who played for both teams, finished with a combined 5 receptions for 67 yards and 1 touchdown. His longest reception was a 24 yarder for the Reds.
The aforementioned Humphreys caught 4 passes for 77 yards for the Blacks, including 2 TDs. And four-star prospect Talyn Taylor caught 3 passes for 32 yards, with a long of 17.
The Reds had 13 players make a catch while 10 players caught passes for the Blacks. Among the receivers for the Reds was heralded transfer Zachariah Branch, who caught 1 pass for 36 yards, and redshirt-freshman Jeremy Bell, who caught a 31-yarder. Freshman C.J. Wiley made a one-handed catch on a well-defended 35-yard reception for the Black team.
While the passing attack was emphasized, as is usual in these spring affairs (because it makes the games move faster), the rushing attack wasn’t ignored.
Smart and his staff need to establish backups to Nate Frazier, the returning starter at running back, who carried the ball just 5 times for 13 yards (and caught 2 passes for 27 yards).
But a couple of other backs looked quite promising, with Chauncey Bowens leading runners for the Reds with 38 yards on 5 carries while Bo Walker ran the ball 8 times for the Blacks, gaining a net 44 yards, with his longest run covering 30 yards. Dwight Phillips also had 4 carries for 8 yards for the Blacks.
Redshirt-senior RB Cash Jones didn’t play that much, because the Georgia coaching staff knows what he can do, but while he only touched the ball twice, both plays resulted in first downs, including a 25-yard reception in the fourth quarter.
Peyton Woodring had 2 field goals for the Reds and Liam Badger had one for the Blacks. (Punts and kickoffs were not live plays in the game, but Drew Miller averaged 44.8 yards punting for the Blacks and Henry Bates averaged 32.5 yards for the Reds. Regular punter Brett Thorson still is recovering from a last-season injury.)
Overall, the Reds outgained the Blacks, 441 total yards to 313.
Of course, as has been discussed here before, Saturday’s G-Day was the first in 20 years not to be televised, which Smart had explained (pretty unconvincingly) by saying he wanted to control the timing and the pace of the game. Meanwhile, most college coaches who have kept their spring games off TV (or canceled them altogether) said outright that they were worried about showcasing the talent they had to other programs that might be looking to lure them away via the transfer portal.
On the subject of possible roster losses, Smart said after Saturday’s game: “I hope I get to keep my entire roster for the entire year. If we don’t, then we’ll get someone that wants to [play at Georgia]. I’m worried about the kids that want to be here, not the ones who don’t.”
And the ones Smart wants on his team are those who play with his spring buzzwords — fire, passion and energy. “If there’s anybody out there that’s playing high school football that has fire, passion, energy and just loves the game, we got a spot for you,” the coach said. “Just come to Georgia. We’ll find a way to get you there.”
As for the upcoming House vs. NCAA legal settlement that addresses issues of college athlete compensation and likely will result in schools paying players, Smart shied away from the subject Saturday.
But speaking generally about all the changes that have transformed — and continue to transform — the game, he said that “it’s not the college football that we all grew up watching … but it’s still a really good product.”
He’s right.
A couple of other G-Day notes:
While it wasn’t televised, the game was carried by the Bulldogs’ radio network, although at times that was a frustrating listening experience for those fans who weren’t among the announced crowd of 35,033 at Sanford Stadium. Not all plays were described during the radio coverage, and one touchdown had to be mentioned after the fact because, at the time it happened, the broadcast was focused on a sideline interview that, among other things, was trying to nail down which player on the team has the best hair.
As for the most unusual moment of the two-hour game (which was played mostly with a continuously running clock), it came when an official had ruled that Colbie Young caught a touchdown in the end zone for the Reds during the first half. However, after the replay on the video screen showed he clearly had both feet out of bounds, Smart overruled the ref and the points were taken off the scoreboard.
As the Georgia head coach noted to interviewer Jeff Dantzler at the end of the first half, that experience was a new one for him — “I’ve never had that before!”
