Tag: Georgia football 2020

Mathis to Pickens connection looking on point just days away from kickoff

The D’Wan Mathis to George Pickens Georgia football connection has been looking excellent just days away from Week One of Georgia’s season.

Since Jamie Newman’s unexpected decision to opt out of the 2020 college football season due to COVID-19 concerns, all the hype has been surrounding redshirt freshman quarterback D’Wan Mathis.

Mathis had surgery to remove a cyst on his brain last year but has since been cleared for football activities.  He now sits as the frontrunner to win the Georgia QB job for the 2020 season.

Mathis has been getting the majority of the first team reps in practice leading up to Week One in Fayetteville, Arkansas against the Arkansas Razorbacks.

In an SEC Inside video of Georgia’s practice, Mathis and sophomore wide receiver George Pickens hook up multiple times for some unreal connections, previewing what we could witness this fall.

WATCH:

Pickens looks like he’s ready to take the conference by storm this year, catching nearly every ball thrown in his radius.  Mathis has also been doing an excellent job of recognizing Pickens’ ability and delivering balls where only he can catch them.

There was a lot of leadership and fire seen in the Dawgs’ practice.  Senior defensive back Richard LeCounte was seen motivating and pushing the  younger players throughout the video, and that is something that head coach Kirby Smart has been preaching since the beginning.

“We have to look ourselves in the mirror, the leaders on the team, the ones that are out here trying to push guys, trying to challenge guys, and say ‘hey man I need more effort out of you,’” Smart said.

“We’ve got to challenge ourselves to get in shape and condition,” he said. “I need somebody on the team to say ‘You know Coach, we’re going to fix that. We’re not afraid of work.

“I need ownership from our team. I need self pride. I need conditioning pride. I need toughness. I need guys to play good.”

With USC transfer JT Daniels still nursing an ACL tear back to full health, Mathis was the only quarterback featured in the video, hinting that the job is likely his.

If we see anything like the highlights from this video, Georgia’s air raid offense will be firing on all cylinders in 2020.

UGA AD Greg McGarity ‘planning as if a football season is going to happen’

UGA athletic director Greg McGarity says the school is ‘planning as if a football season is going to happen’ for Georgia football

Colleges across the country are starting to feel the significant financial burden on sports that comes with the coronavirus.

Prior to the cancellation of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the NCAA was set to disperse $600 million to Division I schools. Now it will only be sending out $225 million, a 62% cut.

Now we all know that we will be without a college basketball postseason, as well as all other major professional sports for a while, but the question still remains; will we have football in 2020?

“Depending on football, obviously, that’s the big unknown now,” University of Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said in an interview with Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald.

“We’re planning as if a football season is going to happen. If that doesn’t happen, that’s a whole another environment.”

All universities spring football games have been cancelled but we are still a ways away from the regular season. McGarity’s statement is a good sign for Bulldog and all football fans, but schools are still starting to prepare for the worst.

Georgia sold $33.4 million in ticket sales for the 2019 season, and that’s just revenue from fans who go to the games. They also have a number of other major sources of football revenue that will be lost if football is not a reality for 2020.

“We’re hoping and praying that doesn’t happen,” McGarity said. “We also have to be realistic if football was not part of that what does that mean with our reserves, how much of the reserve can we utilize to make us somewhat whole. That’s why we have a reserve, thank goodness. We’re probably in better shape than a lot of institutions because of our financial stability.”

ESPN’s college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit is among those who have a more skeptical outlook on the upcoming 2020 CFB and NFL seasons.

“I’ll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football. I’ll be so surprised if that happens,” said Herbstreit on ESPN Radio.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on this matter, but Herbstreit brought up the point that vaccinations are estimated to take roughly a year or more to become available.

“Just because from what everything I understand, people that I listen to, you’re 12 to 18 months away from a vaccine,” he added. “I don’t know how you let these guys go into locker rooms and let stadiums be filled up and how you can play ball. I just don’t know how you can do it with the optics of it.”

McGarity also mentioned that the athletic department will only be spending on essential operations and virus related issues until the pandemic is over.  Georgia should be able to handle an economic dip like this and is preparing for the absolute worst, but hoping for the best.

There are still 162 days until Georgia is scheduled to kickoff the 2020 football season against Virginia.  We will keep you up to date with the latest coronavirus news and the impact it will have on the 2020 football season.

How Georgia football and TAMU match up: Statistical breakdown

See how Georgia football and Texas AM football matchup in our weekly head-to-head statistical breakdown ahead of Saturdays game.

The Texas A&M Aggies travel East this Saturday as the Georgia Bulldogs will host them in Sanford Stadium for what will be the Dawgs final SEC matchup of the regular season.

Georgia secured a ticket to its third straight SEC Championship Game this past Saturday with a 21-14 victory at Auburn.

The unranked Aggies (7-3, 4-2) are not a team to overlook.  Jimbo Fisher and company have lost games to previously ranked #1 Clemson, #1 Alabama and #8 Auburn. A&M has one of the toughest schedules in all of college football, still having #4 Georgia as well as #1 LSU the week after.

That will be a total of three #1 teams and four top five teams on the season.

That being said, let’s take a look at how these two teams matchup statistically this season.

On paper, the first matchup between the Bulldogs ands Aggies since TAMU joined the SEC in 2012 looks to be a Georgia win. But, hey, we said the same thing before South Carolina.

Here’s a look at how the two SEC programs match up statistically.

OFFENSE

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