Tuesday Morning ‘Dawg Bites Has Been Waiting For This

Dec 6, 2022 - 12:00 PM

Welcome to Tuesday, fellow SEC Champion Georgia Bulldog fans! And if you’re a Tide fan, go troll the TCU site - we ain’t got time for that. We’re preparing for a College Football Playoff game.

Was UGA a top 4 team in the preseason? Indeed. Did UGA move up in the polls as the season progressed? Yes, thanks to Alabama’s multiple 1-score escapes and failures, plus Vols vol-ing. So to be in the CFP might not have been an expectation after the spring 2022 transfer portal (lost @ 13 players?) and NFL draft (another 15 players), but it has been a palplable outcome most of autumn 2022. So we’ve been waiting. Waiting for someone new to make us feel alive.

For one of the last times, we turn to the Billboard charts of 1981 (the season following a UGA national championship, just like this year) to see what we can glean from that particular zeitgeist. And, it delivers.

Now onto news and notes of the Georgia Bulldog variety:

There’s not much new to say about the SEC Championship Game, but the intrepid young reporters from the Red and Black did provide their weekly grades of the Bulldog position groups. It’s hard to argue.

Yep, the portal is now open. And as of this writing, there had been no declarations from current Georgia Bulldog football players. But, and this is a but of epic proportions; Georgia had no transfers announced before the 2021 playoffs either yet eventually lost 13 players (the only FBS school not to accept any transfers either) after the championship concluded. The transfer portal dates are earlier and different than 2021, so I wouldn’t necessarily take this as chipped into stone tablets for immortality.

I’m not about to pore over the 700+ players currently entered in to the portal, but one does seem to have a little more relevance. Former Bulldog wide receiver (not that Bulldog) Rara Thomas has both entered the portal and received an offer from UGA.

In actual recruiting news (old school, I know), Offensive Tackle Jamal Meriwether committed to the G. The Brunswick native was previously under the spell of Gus Malzahn, and seems to prefer actual national championship parades rather than theoretical ones. On the back of Sunday’s news of Samuel M’Pemba, Kirby Smart just keeps delivering the goods.

Bulldogs were well represented in the first and second All-SEC teams announced Monday. And in not shocking (due to constant underrating) but surprising news, there is a Bulldog who was noticeably absent from this list. Personally, I’m waiting on T Kyle King’s off-season tome on this DGD and the ever-present slights. At least he gets a free ticket from Hartsfield to La Guardia.

With 3+ weeks until the game, don’t expect much news out of either team. Yet in this age of opt-outs and the transfer portal, announcements about key personnel can mean big money. Our friends over at Draft Kings have installed Georgia as a 6.5 point favorite as of Sunday night. Then Monday’s news that star (and injured) an University from the Commonwealth of Ohio wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba will not suit up might move that line even more in UGA’s favor. So far it has not. Smith-Njigba apparently will continue rehabbing and instead prepare for the upcoming NFL draft.

Brent Key has officially taken the interim tag off his office door. The Head Football Coach at Georgia Tech held a press conference today, likely to prevent an avalanche of transfer portal requests. But he was adamant that his focus is to “dominate” Georgia. I’ll give him credit, he actually did that for about 3 minutes this season. Which is more than Geoff Collins or Paul Johnson can say.

The Gamecocks are riding high, having relegated both Clemson and Tennessee out of the playoffs and, in a sense of utter high irony, playing each other in the Orange Bowl. But Shane Beamer might be getting out of his depth, as reports have surfaced on his target for a new offensive coordinator. I could link, but you’ll have fun googling it or better yet, search for it on twitter. The tweets are hilarious.

We welcome any updates or projections you, the glorious Dawg Sports readers, have seen or heard. Feel free to drop them in the comments. Now if you’ll excuse me, my an osu neighbor will be waking up soon, and I have to make sure it’s this beauty, pumped through my PA and amp system. And as always...

GO ‘DAWGS!!!