Dawgs over Hawgs on a Ho-Hum Saturday in Fayetteville

Darrell Huckaby is a syndicated columnist and author of six books including two about Georgia football. Read Huck’s Wit and Wisdom every Wednesday and Sunday. Subscribe at https://dhuck.substack.com/.

Dawgs over Hawgs on a Ho-Hum Saturday in Fayetteville

Ho-hum. Another Saturday. Another near-perfect game by Ginner Stockton. Another Georgia route.

There are certain things a Southern gentleman ought to be able to count on. The sun will come up in the east. Somebody at church will sit in your pew even though everybody in the congregation knows good and well that is where you have been sitting since the Carter administration. Your wife will ask you why you are yelling at the television when everybody on the television is 700 miles away and cannot hear you. And Georgia ought to be able to handle a bunch of Razorbacks.

Mission accomplished.

The Georgia Bulldogs traveled to Fayetteville Saturday and beat Arkansas 45-17 in a game that wasn't nearly as close as the score indicated. And 45-17 ain't particularly close.

Georgia led 21-3 at halftime and 38-3 before Arkansas scored a couple of fourth-quarter touchdowns after the issue had pretty much been decided and most Georgia fans had started wondering what was for supper. The Dawgs are now 3-0, and I am beginning to suspect they might be pretty good.

I know. I know.

We opened with Tennessee State and Western Kentucky, and those two teams weren't exactly the 1972 Miami Dolphins. Georgia scored 133 points in those first two games, which caused some people to say, "Yeah, but let's see what happens when they start playing SEC teams."

Well, Arkansas is an SEC team. At least that's what it says on their jerseys.

The most impressive part of Saturday's game was Georgia's domination of the line of scrimmage. Georgia rushed for 254 yards. Arkansas rushed for 17.

Seventeen.

I've walked farther than that looking for my car at Auburn after a Georgia win.

I believe I covered more ground than that last week walking back and forth to the refrigerator during commercials. Arkansas calls themselves the Razorbacks, which is supposed to conjure up images of mean, wild hogs charging through the Ozarks. Saturday they looked more like something you'd order chopped with Brunswick stew and two slices of white bread.

Meanwhile, Gunner Stockton continues to make me happy.

Gunner completed 10 of 13 passes for 147 yards and a touchdown, but the number that jumped off the page was 97 rushing yards. And if it weren’t for a couple of bad sacks he would have had 122 rushing yards. That’s approaching a Herschel-like number. For a quarterback.

Our quarterback led the team in rushing. And one of those runs went for 62 yards. Gunner Stockton running 62 yards is not exactly Usain Bolt. It is more like watching somebody steal a refrigerator. You keep thinking somebody is eventually going to catch him, but somehow he just keeps lumbering down the road with the appliance.

Even Kirby Smart joked afterward that he knew Gunner was going to run out of gas.

He almost did. But not before he had carried the football 62 yards and put Georgia in position for another touchdown.

That is Gunner Stockton football. Nothing fancy. Nothing pretty. No Hollywood. Just lower your shoulder, protect the football and see if the other fellow is willing to pay the price required to stop you.

Most of the time he isn't.

Chauncey Bowens had himself quite an afternoon, too, scoring three rushing touchdowns. Nate Frazier added 75 yards and another score before getting dinged up.

Then freshman Craig Dandridge caught a short little pass from Stockton and turned it into a 61-yard touchdown.

At that point Georgia led 38-3, and the only suspense remaining was whether Kirby Smart was going to allow anybody wearing a red helmet to play who hadn't already gotten into the game.

Ryan Puglisi eventually came in and threw a touchdown pass to Lawson Luckie. Forty-five points. On the road. In the SEC. I'll take it.

If you read my Friday musings, I had picked the Dawgs to win 45-10. I was one blown pass coverage away from nailing it, and winning Russell Tanner’s bacon.

But if you're looking for the statistic that ought to make Georgia fans smile over their Sunday morning coffee, go back to that 17 rushing yards allowed.

Seventeen!

Arkansas had 20 rushing attempts. That means the Razorbacks averaged less than one yard per carry. I don't know exactly what the Arkansas offensive game plan was, but apparently "run the football" was quickly crossed off the list.

Georgia's defense basically put a "ROAD CLOSED" sign across the line of scrimmage and invited Arkansas to find another route.

Now, before we start making hotel reservations for the national championship game, there are a couple of things to remember.

It's September. The schedule gets considerably more difficult. And college football has a way of humbling you about five minutes after you decide you have everything figured out. Kirby Smart knows that better than anybody.

That's why he'll watch the film and find approximately 437 things Georgia did wrong in a game it won by 28 points. That's what Kirby does.

The rest of us can enjoy it. Georgia is 3-0. The Dawgs have scored 178 points in three games. Gunner Stockton looks comfortable. The offensive line looks nasty. There are running backs everywhere. And the defense just held an SEC opponent to 17 rushing yards on its own field.

That will do for the third Sunday morning in September.

So, pour another cup of coffee. Read the sports page twice. Wear your Georgia shirt to church. Try not to bark at anybody during the invitation hymn. And if you happen to have barbecue for lunch, just remember to say the blessing first.

After all, the Dawgs already cooked the hog.

Georgia 45. Arkansas 17. How 'bout them Dawgs.

Help me welcome my Cousin Carl’s Sooners to ol’ Athens town next Saturday. Look for me. I’ll be the good-looking guy in the red shirt.

Darrell Huckaby