Welcome to Week 2 of college football. It’s a light week in the SEC, outside of the Border War and showdown Saturday night in Norman, this will largely be a tune-up and dress rehearsal for most teams. Kirby Smart was asked what to expect this week in the Georgia vs. Austin Peay matchup. Smart wasn’t going to feast on any of that yummy rat poison; instead, he views Saturday as a chance to build off of Georgia’s win last Saturday against Marshall. “Another home game. Another home opportunity for our team.”
Between the Hedges: Georgia vs. Austin Peay
What Are the Game Details?
History: Georgia leads the series 1-0.
Last meeting: Georgia defeated Austin Peay 45-0 in 2018.
Date and Time: Saturday, Sept. 6 | 3:30 p.m. EST
Location: Vince Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium.
Television: ESPN+
Spread: N/A
What Should You Know About Austin Peay?
Austin Peay is an FCS school, but Smart warned that Dawgs or their fans shouldn’t take the Governors lightly. “It’s not as simple as just walking out there and saying, ‘You’ve got bigger and supposedly better players than these guys.’ Just go run all over them. It’s not that simple. These guys are disruptive in what they do. They’re tied together. They play really hard, and effort counts twice. If you play with great effort, you can see it’s worth double the value.” The Governors are coming off a big win after taking it to Middle Tennessee State last week. They earned their first win over an FBS team for the first time since 1987. Smart wasn’t joking about the Governors’ defense. They held Middle Tennessee to just 153 total yards.
What Should You Expect From Georgia on Offense?
What Should You Expect From Georgia on Defense?
The Georgia defense was stingy on Saturday. They shut the Thundering Herd out on eight of their nine drives. The majority of their drives were only 3-5 plays at most. While, Smart got a question this week about the defense and the difficulty in creating turnovers. Smart shared how “it’s critical and really important. Just haven’t found a way to be dominant at it. I don’t know whether it affects us, whether teams protect the ball better against this, take less chances, or we just don’t get them out.” Smart said. “It’s not something we don’t reach, sell, attack, and try to do. Historically, at least since we’ve been here, we have not been elite at that. It’s one of the things that popped out at us the other day, defensively, that we didn’t have as many opportunities in 55 plays, but we didn’t take advantage of the ones we had.”
We can chalk this question up to first-world problems. Turnovers are important, but if the Dawgs are going to be that stingy in 2025, Georgia fans have little to worry about.
Who Wins Georgia vs. Austin Peay?
The fans? Smart shared his disappointment in fans seeming to go explore campus or the fine establishments in downtown Athens for the second half. It’s a common complaint that we’ve heard from Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin. “Our team plays four quarters of football, and we want you in the seats for all four.” It’s a good idea in theory, but it’s tough. Marshall was overmatched on Saturday, and unless your son was on the field, it was a beautiful day to take in all that Athens has to offer. That didn’t stop Smart from making his plea to fans, by the way; he is not going to beg you to stay.
“I don’t know that you’d incentivize the turnout. I don’t really believe in incentivizing things. I think it has to be a core DNA trait of belief.” Smart said. “When you sell things, it’s, ‘I will do this if you do this,’ and incentivize.I don’t think that’s great motivation. I think it’s intrinsic in who you are. I think people should love to be at a Georgia home game because there’s only so many of them, limited opportunities.” Maybe Austin Peay will make the game interesting and keep fans in their seats. (Probably not)
Georgia 45
Austin Peay 3
Main Photo: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images
