{"id":51472,"date":"2023-09-22T14:00:55","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T18:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=51472"},"modified":"2025-09-13T15:07:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:07:21","slug":"three-keys-to-finding-a-way-uab-vs-georgia-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/09\/22\/three-keys-to-finding-a-way-uab-vs-georgia-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Keys to Finding a Way: UAB vs. Georgia Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Kirby Smart<\/strong> knows how to motivate a locker room. He&#8217;s had some epic pregame and halftime rants. The pregame speeches before TCU and at halftime against Florida last year are marked &#8220;NSFW&#8221; but are motivating. Smart did it again in last Saturday&#8217;s win against the Gamecocks. Rather than laying into Georgia with colorful language for being down 14-3, he told them they would find a way to score and win the game. &#8220;We\u2019re gonna get about six possessions on offense. We\u2019re gonna score on four of \u2018em. They may score once more, but that\u2019s it.&#8221; Georgia would have seven second-half possessions, scoring on three of them and missing a field goal on the other. Let&#8217;s hope Georgia doesn&#8217;t need another halftime pep talk this week. Before we dig into the Georgia preview against UAB, let&#8217;s look at three keys for the game this week.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Kirby Smart\u2019s halftime speech last week <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ugabarstool?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ugabarstool<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>@BarstoolUofSC didn\u2019t stand a chance. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dQIsPEuepC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/dQIsPEuepC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Barstool U (@BarstoolU) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BarstoolU\/status\/1704523163306954838?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 20, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Georgia Preview Key #1: Finish Drives<\/h3>\n<p>Georgia&#8217;s biggest problem last Saturday was finishing drives. They had four drives in the first half, resulting in just three points. On two of those drives, Georgia couldn&#8217;t finish. Their first drive of the game lasted 15 plays and milked almost eight minutes off the clock but stalled on the eight-yard line, resulting in a field goal. In the second quarter, Georgia again marched down the field in 13 plays, only to see the drive stall at the 10-yard line and the drive end with a missed field goal. To salt the wound, South Carolina responded by scoring a touchdown five plays later and going up 14-3. This trend of slow starts and not finishing drives is familiar for Georgia in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>After Smart&#8217;s halftime speech, Georgia responded with touchdowns on three of its next four drives. A 12-play drive that ended in another missed field goal was the only drive not to end in a touchdown. All three of the touchdown drives also came in ten plays or less. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/brock-bowers-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Brock Bowers<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/04\/25\/georgia-spring-transfer-portal-update\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Rara Thomas<\/strong><\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/marcus-rosemy-jacksaint-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint<\/strong><\/a> all have shown big-play ability this season. They should be called on to spark the Georgia offense early on Saturday against the Blazers and help finish drives.<\/p>\n<h3>Georgia Preview Key #2: Find a kicker<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/peyton-woodring-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Peyton Woodring<\/strong><\/a> did himself and Georgia few favors against South Carolina. The freshman from Louisiana was just one of three on-field goals. Overall, he is four of seven on the season, with his long being 35 yards. Georgia has not had to worry about kicking duties for most of Smart&#8217;s tenure. Jack Podlesny was dependable for the last few years for Georgia and was named the Associated Press and Coaches&#8217; All-SEC First Team. On Tuesday, Smart shared that the competition is still ongoing between Woodring and Junior <strong>Jared Zirkel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Smart and the staff are continuing to evaluate the position. &#8220;We did a bunch of exercises to put some pressure on those guys today, and we&#8217;re going to do the same thing throughout the week and then make a decision. That&#8217;s minute to minute, hour by hour.\u201d Woodring was the top kicker in the 2023 class. Zirkel has handled kickoffs this season. Finding a kicker will be important as SEC play starts next week.<\/p>\n<h3>Georgia Preview Key #3: Feed Dejuan Edwards<\/h3>\n<p>Heading into the South Carolina game, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/09\/14\/georgia-vs-south-carolina-is-georgias-running-game-still-elite\/\" target=\"_self\">we questioned<\/a> whether or not Georgia&#8217;s running game was still elite. It turns out, Georgia just needed <strong>Daijun Edwards<\/strong>\u00a0to return to the lineup. The senior had 20 carries for 118 yards a touchdown in the win. On Saturday, Edwards will be asked to carry a big load against the Blazers. Georgia&#8217;s other two tailbacks are still dealing with injuries. <strong>Roderick Robinson<\/strong> (ankle) and <strong>Kendall Milton<\/strong> (knee) didn&#8217;t practice earlier this week, but Smart hoped to have at least one back for Saturday. &#8220;It&#8217;s looking doubtful that Roderick will be able to play this week. I&#8217;m still holding out hope that Kendall might be able to.&#8221; This should free up some more carries for <strong>Cash Jones<\/strong>. Jones is looking to be the next big walk-on story at Georgia, following in the footsteps of <strong>Stetson Bennett<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>UAB vs. No. 1 Georgia Preview<\/h2>\n<p>\ud83d\udccd Stanford Stadium<br \/>\n\u23f0\u00a0 7:30 p.m.<br \/>\n\ud83d\udcfa\u00a0 ESPN 2<br \/>\n\ud83d\udcb0 Georgia -42.5<br \/>\nO\/U 54<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn SEC football game at night is a way better atmosphere than a Super Bowl.\u201d Those were the words of new UAB Blazer coach <strong>Trent Dilfer <\/strong>this week. Let&#8217;s hope Sanford Stadium will be rocking come Saturday night and lives up to the former Super Bowl-winning quarterback&#8217;s expectations. These two teams met two years ago, and Georgia walked away with a 56-7 win. The Blazers are 1-2 on the season, with its only win against FCS opponent North Carolina NC A&amp;T. UAB will try to attack Georgia through the air. Quarterback <strong>Jared Zeno<\/strong> transferred in from Baylor and is completing just over 80% of his passes on the season. Look for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/09\/07\/kirby-smart-on-georgias-defense-and-a-ball-state-preview\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Malaki Starks<\/strong><\/a> to continue to lead Georgia and have a big game.<\/p>\n<p><b>Prediction: Georgia<\/b><strong><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">\u00a049 UAB 3\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-51494\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/09\/USATSI_21436147_168400536_lowres-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Georgia Preview\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/09\/USATSI_21436147_168400536_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/09\/USATSI_21436147_168400536_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/09\/USATSI_21436147_168400536_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/09\/USATSI_21436147_168400536_lowres-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/09\/USATSI_21436147_168400536_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/09\/USATSI_21436147_168400536_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/09\/USATSI_21436147_168400536_lowres.jpg 1655w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Photo courtesy: Joshua L. Jones \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kirby Smart knows how to motivate a locker room. He&#8217;s had some epic pregame and halftime rants. The pregame speeches before TCU and at halftime against Florida last year are marked &#8220;NSFW&#8221; but are motivating. Smart did it again in last Saturday&#8217;s win against the Gamecocks. Rather than laying into Georgia with colorful language for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4424,"featured_media":51494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,35578],"tags":[8225,65,106,20,1656],"class_list":["post-51472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sec","category-featured","category-georgia-bulldogs","tag-brock-bowers","tag-georgia-bulldogs","tag-kirby-smart","tag-sec","tag-uab-blazers"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4424"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78444,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51472\/revisions\/78444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}