Georgia will have more size, speed, talent and fan support Saturday afternoon when Kirby Smart’s fifth-ranked Bulldogs welcome Marshall to Sanford Stadium.
Which helps explain why they’re 40-point favorites.
If there is any advantage for the Thundering Herd, it’s in the great unknown. Marshall is now under the tutelage of first-year coach Tony Gibson, who brought in a whopping 61 new players.
“You start with yourself, right?” Smart said Monday afternoon when asked how he’s preparing this week given Marshall’s overhaul. “You prepare yourself by how you run to the ball, how you strike people, how you move people, how you run and throw the ball, and by not turning it over. There can be lot of sloppiness in first games with penalties, so it starts with that. The opponent is us, and it’s going to be us every week this year.
“Now, it’s important that we know what they do, and sometimes that can be less information compared to other times. They’ve got an interesting roster makeup of guys from all over, some of which they couldn’t control because they had a lot of guys leave.”