Welcome to the cut-blocking portion of Georgia’s football schedule.
After being eliminated from the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division race with an Oct. 31 loss to Florida, the Bulldogs have bounced back with wins over Kentucky and Auburn. Georgia is 7-3 with in-state games remaining against the triple-option tandem of Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech.
The Eagles and Yellow Jackets use cut-blocking, which is legalized blocking below the waist for offensive players who are not in motion at the snap of the ball. It is not legal to cut-block a defender who is engaged with another blocker, and it can be used only for straight-ahead blocks.
“I’m not excited at all,” said Georgia senior inside linebacker and UAB transfer Jake Ganus after Saturday’s 20-13 victory at Auburn. “I’ve had to play some cut-blocks before, but nothing like what we’re about to see. We did all sorts of drills in camp, and I got cut in situations in this game, but we’ve definitely practiced it.
“There is a technique and an art to it, but we’ll definitely have to hone that up these next two weeks.”
Georgia completed the SEC portion of its schedule this past weekend with a 5-3 record and is closing its regular season against Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech for the second time in four years. The Bulldogs would love to have the same success they did in 2012, when they hammered the Eagles (45-14) and Jackets (42-10).
That Georgia team handled the cut-blocking and then played for the SEC title, losing a heartbreaker to Alabama.
“It’s not fun to practice, but it’s worth practicing for,” senior outside linebacker Jordan Jenkins said. “In the games you’re protecting your shins and protecting your legs, so it pays off.”
Preparing for the Eagles and Jackets may not be fun for Georgia’s defensive front seven, but the pass-defense statistics of the Bulldogs should continue to improve. After holding Auburn to 62 passing yards, Georgia is now No. 4 nationally in that category, allowing 162.7 yards per game.
The Bulldogs are 10th nationally in total defense (allowing 302.3 yards per game) and 14th in scoring defense (allowing 17.9 points per game).
Georgia remained unranked Sunday in the two major polls. The Bulldogs do not have victories over any Football Bowl Subdivision teams with winning records – Auburn and Missouri are both 5-5 – but they do have two more wins than they did limping out of Jacksonville.
Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said there is “great momentum” after Saturday’s win, but he didn’t savor it for long. While the rest of the team returned to Athens, Richt stopped at the Atlanta airport and flew to Seattle for a Sunday morning visit with quarterback commitment Jacob Eason.
“We had a good visit and just kind of hung out together,” Richt said. “I spent time with his mother, sister and father on the front end while he slept in a little bit. I went in there and woke him up and kind of surprised him, because he didn’t know I was going to be there.”
Richt said he went to bed around midnight Pacific time Saturday and got about five or six hours of sleep. NCAA rules allowed him to make the visit because Eason has signed financial aid papers and is scheduled to enroll at Georgia in January.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.