ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia coach Kirby Smart gave his former assistant coach a rude welcome to SEC play with a thoroughly dominant 40-13 victory at Sanford Stadium on Saturday.
South Carolina first-year coach Shane Beamer was the Bulldogs’ special teams coordinator and tight ends coach during Smart’s first two seasons at Georgia. In his first conference contest, Beamer tried to take a few chances with his overmatched team on a steamy, hot night between the hedges. Those risks proved costly and the Bulldogs were able to run away with the game between the end of the second quarter and first few minutes of the third.
Meanwhile, Georgia welcomed quarterback JT Daniels back into the fold. The redshirt junior, who missed the previous game with an oblique strain, started and played most of the game. Daniels passed for 303 yards and threw touchdowns to three different receivers — Adonai Mitchell, Jermaine Burton and James Cook. Mitchell, a freshman from Missouri City, Texas, led the Bulldogs with four catches for 77 yards, including a 38-yard score. Freshman tight end Brock Bowers had five receptions for 53 yards.
Stetson Bennett, Georgia’s hero in the lopsided win over UAB last week, came in on the game’s third series after Daniels was 8-of-9 passing and threw an interception. He did not play again until the fourth quarter with the Bulldogs holding a comfortable lead.
While Georgia (3-0, 1-0 SEC) was clearly the better team, it did not play a particular clean game. The Bulldogs had three turnovers on two interceptions and a fumble.
The Georgia defense made the mostly inconsequential with an interception and fumble recovery of its own. The Bulldogs added three sacks to raise their season total to 13 and harassed South Carolina’s quarterbacks all night.
Georgia also somewhat resurrected its running game with 186 yards, led by Kendall Milton’s 66.
However, the Bulldogs' first touchdown to an opposing team this season. Cornerback Ameer Speed was beaten deep by South Carolina’s Josh Vann for a 36-yard touchdown with 10:55 remaining in the game. Vann finished with 128 yards on three catches, which doesn’t include a 31-yarder nullified by penalty.
Facing a lot of backups in the fourth quarter, the Gamecocks managed to top 300 yards on the night.
Considering it came in as a 30-point underdog, South Carolina actually played a decent first half. But for their trouble, the Gamecocks went to their halftime locker room trailing 26-6.
That had a lot to do with what happened in the final minute of the second quarter.
Leading 21-6 inside 45 seconds, the Bulldogs were forced to punt from midfield. Jack Camarda’s punt was downed by Justin Robinson on the Gamecocks’ 1-yard line.
Not satisfied with going into halftime trailing by two scores, Beamer asked quarterback Luke Doty to throw deep out of the Gamecocks’ end zone with 32 seconds left in the half.
Bad idea.
Georgia noseguard Jordan Davis got free up the middle as Doty was trying to step up and unleash a pass. Nolan Smith got a piece, too, and the result was a safety and two points for the Bulldogs with 24 seconds remaining in the half.
Just as important, Georgia got the ball back.
The Bulldogs took over at their own 42 after Kenny McIntosh’s 28-yard return but had only 19 seconds to work with. Turns out, that was all Daniels would need to get Georgia into field goal range. He quickly completed passes to Brock Bowers and Jermaine Burton totaling 30 yards, clocked the ball at 10 seconds, hit Kearis Jackson for another 9-yard gain and the Bulldogs used their final timeout to set up Jack Podlesny for a 36-yard field goal, which he made as the halftime horn sounded.
Georgia went from 21-6 ahead to 26-6 in 24 seconds.
The Bulldogs kept the pressure up, quite literally, to open the second half. Clemson transfer Derion Kendrick recorded his first interception as a Bulldog on South Carolina’s third play of the second half and returned it nine yards to South Carolina 20.
It took just two Zamir White runs from there — the first one went for 17 yards — to extends Georgia’s lead. A minute and three seconds into the second half, the Bulldogs led 33-6.
South Carolina appeared to be on the move when Georgia’s defense created more havoc. Smith tomahawked Doty from the left flank, recording another sack and sending the football bounding forward. Linebacker Quay Walker scooped it up from there but was tackled right where he fielded it.
The Bulldogs had to work at it a little this time. With Daniels working some more third-down magic, Georgia fittingly scored on a pass to James Cooke for a sudden and decisive 40-6 lead with half the third quarter still to play.
