Sugar Bowl First Half Open Thread

After a 25 day layoff your Georgia Bulldogs are finally preparing to retake the field in the 2024 College Football Playoff. Are we playing with a backup quarterback making his first career start? Yes. Are we starting a true freshman punter who’s never kicked in a college game? Indeed we are. Is the running back room still at half strength and the receiving corps still shaky? Looks that way.

Whatever, we ball.

In many ways Georgia is the team with nothing to lose in this game despite being the higher seed. The Bulldogs are the underdogs (albeit by only a single point), written off by many after Carson Beck’s season-ending injury. Disrespected. Cast aside. In fact, you can get better odds that the Texas team Georgia has beaten twice will win the title than those offered for your Bulldog betting slip.

In short, Kirby may have the Irish right where he wants them.

As is customary we’re taking one last look at the injury report before kickoff:

Defensive tackle Christen Miller is probably after missing much of the latter part of the season due to a shoulder injury suffered against UMass. That’s good news against a Notre Dame squad that will want to run the ball.

Offensive tackle Ernest Greene is also probable after missing the Tennessee and Georgia Tech games and most of the SEC title game against Texas. Sophomore Monroe Freeling filled in admirably in Greene’s absence, so it will be interesting to see who gets the start at left tackle and how those snaps are divided.

Defensive back Joenel Aguero is also probable after suffering g a broken hand that required surgery and put him in a cast late in the year.

It’s not all sunshine and roses however, as tailbacks Roderick Robinson and Branson Robinson are both out after each trying to come back and suffering injury setbacks. Georgia will likely roll with a tailback rotation of Trevor Etienne, Nate Frazier, and Cash Jones, all of whom are mercifully absent from the injury report.

A couple of closing thoughts. Georgia has something of an advantage in that Notre Dame doesn’t have significant tape on Gunner Stockton. They don’t know his tendencies or his specific weaknesses. But first time starting quarterbacks usually have a particular weakness for turnovers, and that’s one Georgia can’t afford. It feels like the Bulldogs may need to steal a possession in this one as well. So I think +2.0 in the turnover column may be the magic number. Against an Irish squad that’s among the nation’s leaders in turnover margin, that’s a tall order.

I also think that while the Bulldogs don’t need to win this one in the first fifteen minutes they also need to avoid losing it there. We’ve seen two playoff quarterfinals in which teams jumped out to double digit leads in the first quarter (Penn State, Ohio State) and then couldn’t be caught. Texas likewise jumped out to a big lead but then almost managed to screw it up. Again a fast start may not be mandatory. But a slow start could be fatal. Not that this 2024 Bulldog team has a history of such things.

But enough conjecture and analysis. It’s time to tee it up.

Go ‘Dawgs!!!