MVDs: Missouri Edition

Oct 2, 2022 - 4:24 AM

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You don’t narrowly avert disaster and embarrassment on a forgettable night in Columbia, Missouri without a few players stepping up. Those young men helping snare victory from the jaws of defeat are your MVDs: the Most Valuable ‘Dawgs from Georgia’s 26-22 win at Missouri.

Offense: Daijun Edwards. Daijun Edwards does absolutely nothing in this world other than enjoy a good no. 2 pencil, delight in the movies of Sergio Leone, and gain positive yardage every single time he touches the football. And on this night that last of his hobbies was the one Georgia needed the most. Edwards wasn’t the Bulldogs’ leading rusher on the night. He wasn’t even second. Edwards had 11 carries for a pretty pedestrian 49 yards. 42 of them were on that final drive to seal the win. And 1 of them, a single yard, was the one he gained on the prior drive to burrow into the endzone for the go-ahead touchdown. Edwards was reliable, and on this night, relatively few Bulldogs could say that.

Defense: Kelee Ringo. Ringo recorded no interceptions and had a tough defensive holding penalty. Why is he being singled out here? Because he was put on an island for most of the night with Mizzou’s top weapon, five star freshman Luther Burden, and by-and-large locked the future NFL receiver down. Burden finished with only 16 yards receiving on 3 catches, a total that could have been a lot worse had Ringo not used his patented combo of speed and physicality to stay in Burden’s hip pocket all night. One explosive Burden catch could have swung this thing to the home team. Ringo didn’t let that happen, thank goodness.

Special Teams: Jack Podlesny. It’s almost a shame that we’ve selected Hot Pod in this slot in prior weeks, because this one was truly his magnum opus. Podlesny hit four field goals, and every one of them was a must-have at the time he kicked it. It felt like the crowd at Faurot Field was just looking for any reason to go bonkers, and Podlesny not matching the Tigers’ Harrison Mevis kick for kick could have easily shifted the momentum enough for the Tigers to blow this one wide open.

Feel free to share your own MVDs in the comments, and…

Go ‘Dawgs!!!