The Georgia football season officially kicks off on Saturday at 7:30 pm in Nashville. Though the Bulldogs are heavy favorites on virtually every betting site, we’re here to discuss why Vanderbilt could potentially keep this one close.
However, we want to be clear here, this does not mean we are predicting a Commodore victory on Saturday.
Let’s dive in.
Ke’Shawn Vaughn
Ke’Shawn Vaughn, the senior running back out of Pearl Cohn High School, was placed on the preseason All-SEC Second Team by the media and is generating lots of buzz.
Vaughn began his career at Illinois, where he rushed for 1,747 yards before transferring to Vanderbilt for his junior year.
After sitting out a season in 2017 due to NCAA rules, the 5’10” running back had 1,244 yards rushing and 170 yards receiving last season, including 14 total touchdowns.
Though the Bulldogs have faced plenty of talent at running back in practice, stopping Vaughn will be no easy task for a young Georgia defense.
However, this feels like it could be similar to the threat Kentucky posed last season, which the Bulldogs handled very well.
Vaughn is one of a few stars for Commodores, who could be contained much like Benny Snell in Lexington.
If the Dawgs are not careful, they could be in for a more difficult evening than expected.
Jared Pinkney
Jared Pinkney, the senior tight end out of Norcross High School, is another member of the Commodores’ Big Three.
Pinkney has 1,327 career receiving yards with Vanderbilt including 774 from the 2018 season.
The senior also had 7 touchdowns last year, with an average of 15.5 yards per reception.
Though the Bulldogs are obviously the more talented team on paper, their closest comparison to Pinkney is Charlie Woerner. Defending Pinkney, in addition to Vaughn and Kalija Lipscomb will be a challenge.
Kalija Lipscomb
Senior wide receiver Kalija Lipscomb has played in all three seasons at Vanderbilt.
Lipscomb has 1,845 career receiving yards as a Commodore, with 19 touchdowns. The senior averaged 10.5 yards per reception last season with 9 scores and a total of 916 yards.
Though JR Reed, Richard Lecounte, and the rest of the Bulldog secondary can handle Lipscomb, containing the Big 3 is going to be the top challenge on Saturday.
The Commodores plan to use their three offensive weapons to an advantage, having Georgia focus on all of them to create openings elsewhere.
We are confident Coach Smart will have the Bulldogs ready for this game, but would not be surprised if the Vanderbilt kept within striking distance, or at least covering the spread.
History
Conspiracies aren’t all that important, unless they involve Alabama games, but there is a bit of a trend in this series that doesn’t help Georgia.
Every three years, Vanderbilt seems to give the Bulldogs fits this decade.
In 2013, Georgia limped into Nashville with an injury-riddled roster and lost to the Commodores 31-27.
Three years later, Vanderbilt came to Athens for homecoming and beat the Bulldogs 17-16.
Here we are in 2019 and….. we’ll see what happens.
Before you start clogging up our mentions, we will go ahead and say that this Georgia team is on a completely different level talent-wise than those other two and we do not expect another upset this time around.
We are simply pointing out the facts.
It’s Week 1 and this is Vanderbilt’s Super Bowl
While the Commodores were able to rally and qualify for a bowl last season, this Georgia game is basically their Super Bowl. With no disrespect towards Vanderbilt, the team’s ceiling this year is probably 8-4 or 7-5 with a trip to the Belk or Music City Bowl at the end of the season.
However, a win over No. 3 Georgia to open up the year could completely flip the script and change the narrative on another season of Commodores football.
We know Georgia is the better team. There hasn’t been enough turnover since last year’s 41-13 beatdown to suggest otherwise, but the Bulldogs did lose a lot of key pieces.
We expect Georgia to have a much better season than Vanderbilt and win this game without too much struggle, but some growing pains with a particularly young offense could keep it closer than you’d think.
The Bulldogs will have plenty of talent at wide receiver, but inexperience for a particularly young corps could play a factor in this game. Luckily, the wide receivers have a few weeks to learn and adapt to their new roles, before Notre Dame comes calling on September 21st.
All in all, Georgia has no business losing this game. Coach Kirby Smart will have his team ready, given the Bulldogs have not dropped an SEC East game since 2016 against Florida.
However, we would not be surprised to see Vanderbilt hang around for a while on Saturday, with potential growing pains for the Georgia offense early.
With that being said, this game could also be a complete drubbing of Derek Mason’s team, as the Bulldogs are looking to make a statement early.
It’s the start of the season and anything can happen, but we have now pointed out five reasons why Georgia can run away with this game, in addition to why Vanderbilt can make this a difficult night for the Dawgs.
