G-Day Takeaways

(Image via Conor Dillon/UGAAA)

By: Lucas Kochevar

The Georgia Bulldogs gave college fans a taste of football on Saturday, along with a number of other teams that held their spring games. The Bulldogs ran out two different squads that featured the first string offense wearing red and the first string defense wearing black. The bigger showdown was Gunner Stockton’s team vs Ryan Puglishi’s team. 

It was hard to really get true takeaways from this game since I wasn’t in-person, didn’t hear the whole game on radio and it wasn’t televised. Head coach Kirby Smart made sure to keep the game off TV in case of any arm chair scouts from opposing teams. With all this being said, I gathered a few observations from social media and the radio call. 

The Bulldogs were slinging the rock. Between multiple quarterbacks, the Bulldogs threw the ball over 80 times. Gunner Stockton and Ryan Puglisi gave their receivers every chance to make plays with jump balls down field throughout the game. The tight ends were also used frequently and a guy that I like to make some noise this year would be Jaden Reddell. His athleticism and size will be hard to keep off the field, along with his running after the catch. 

The Bulldogs weapons were on display on the outside with Zachariah Branch and Dillon Bell making long catches, but another guy that stood out was Colbie Young. Young dealt with legal issues early last season and was out the rest of the year as the legal system dealt with his case. He’s back in the lineup now and made big plays all day. 

It’s always hard to evaluate a defense when they don’t really want to kill their teammates, but the word is Justin Williams and Chris Cole were playmakers throughout the day. The defensive line sounded like they performed better than people thought. I’m not sure if this is a positive for the defense or a concern for the QBs, but they batted balls down at the line of scrimmage all day long. 

It’s truly hard to gauge a team through a scrimmage, especially a team that’s seeing a lot of turnover from the previous year. I like what Georgia displayed on Saturday and they could be a more cohesive team than last year, but there’s still concern. My main concern is Mike Bobo in the same way that everyone is concerned. He’s going to have a new signal caller so we’ll see how he calls the game for him. Thank goodness this team opens up with Marshall and Austin Peay to really work out the kinks before SEC play.

Georgia Tech and Tennessee are two other regional teams that held their spring games. Tennessee was the big subject of talk on the day with Nico entering the transfer portal, but one of his potential replacements, George MacIntyre, threw a beautiful touchdown. ​