ATHENS, Ga. - Back in black and staying on track.
Wearing black jerseys for the first time in eight seasons, the Georgia Bulldogs were far from perfect Saturday afternoon inside Sanford Stadium, but they were good enough to dump Louisiana-Lafayette 35-21. Isaiah McKenzie had a 55-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage and added an 82-yard punt return for a score midway through the first quarter for the Bulldogs, who improved to 7-4 overall with their third consecutive victory.
"The jerseys looked great," McKenzie said. "I didn't feel any different, but they looked great. I had a good time in them."
Nick Chubb rushed 16 times for 108 yards and a touchdown, and he also caught a 49-yard scoring pass from Jacob Eason with 9:34 remaining to give the Bulldogs a 35-7 lead. Chubb's 1-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter already had given Georgia its largest lead of the season at 28-7, but the 28-point advantage the Bulldogs established could not be maintained by the second-stringers.
ULL (4-6) wound up outgaining the Bulldogs 207-91 in the fourth quarter for a 465-400 edge for the game.
"It's good to have that one over with, because I did not enjoy the way that one ended," Bulldogs first-year coach Kirby Smart said. "It's frustrating to walk out with that feeling, because you should feel good about what you did, but the guys we put in the game late didn't play really well on either side of the ball.
"Those guys get so many reps in practice, and to not go out there and play any better than that is disappointing and frustrating."
Smart did describe Saturday as "unique," given that nine of Georgia's first 10 games (all but the 45-14 loss at Ole Miss) were still in doubt in the final minutes.
Georgia built on McKenzie's early outbursts with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Eason to Isaac Nauta that made it 21-0 with 2:50 remaining in the first half. The Ragin' Cajuns had suffered two interceptions and a fumble at that point, but they used a 64-yard pass from Anthony Jennings to Al Riles to set up a 9-yard scoring run by Jennings to get within 21-7 at the break.
Chubb had 65 yards on nine carries at halftime, but Eason was only 5-of-10 passing for 51 yards and threw his first interception since Oct. 9 at South Carolina. Eason finished Saturday's game 13-of-19 for 165 yards.
"I didn't think at halftime that we were just dominating the game," Smart said. "We had two really big plays and got a bunch of turnovers, but outside of that we had not really stopped them, and they had stopped us some."
Georgia will conclude its regular season this Saturday by hosting Georgia Tech, and the Bulldogs, who were so stout defensively in last week's 13-7 win over Auburn, hope the ULL game will be remembered as a very temporary step back.
"They were more physical than we were today, and I tip my hat off to them," junior outside linebacker Davin Bellamy said. "Every team, no matter the conference, has guys who can play just like everyone else. They ran the ball down our throat, honestly.
"We got in their backfield a lot, but they had almost 300 yards rushing. You have to respect a team like that, but we could have been more physical. We did not bring our 'A' game today."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.