(Photo: sicemdawgs.com)

Georgia took care of South Carolina on Saturday night, 40-13, to improve to 3-0 while the Gamecocks suffer their first loss of the young season.

Recap

Georgia began the game with a 75-yard drive capped off with a James Cook 23-yard touchdown run. Zeb Noland started the game for South Carolina and lead them to an opening drive field goal, but would leave the game shortly after with a hand injury. Luke Doty would take over, but the Gamecock offense would struggle all night long. J.T. Daniels would find Jermaine Burton on his second drive for a 43-yard touchdown pass to put the Bulldogs up 14-3.

Jaylan Foster would intercept Stetson Bennett on the following Georgia possession and returns it deep into Georgia territory, but South Carolina would only get a field goal. Daniels would then find freshman wide receiver Adonai Mitchell for a 38-yard touchdown pass to put the #2 team in the nation up 21-6.

South Carolina would force a punt on the next Georgia possession and Jake Camarda would pin the Gamecocks down at their own one-yard line with roughly 30 seconds left in the half. They decide to go play-action and give up a safety to increase the Georgia lead to 23-6. After the punt, the Bulldogs would get into field goal range before the half and Jack Podlesny would sink it to put the Dawgs up 26-6.

Derion Kendrick would intercept Luke Doty on Carolina’s opening possession of the second half, and Zamir White would cap it off with a five-yard touchdown run to make it 33-6. Nolan Smith would force a fumble on the following Gamecock drive and the Dawgs would recover. J.T. Daniels then finds James Cook coming out of the backfield for six to increase the lead to 40-6. South Carolina would get a touchdown before the end of regulation on a 36-yard pass from Luke Doty to Josh Vann, the first given up by the Georgia defense this season.

Takeaways 

Georgia needs to work on its coverage of the deep ball. Several times South Carolina was able to beat Georgia defenders on deep balls against press coverage. Not to say that the Gamecocks don’t have talent, but Georgia clearly had the better athletes on the defensive side of the ball and they shouldn’t have been getting burned multiple times like they did. That will surely prove more costly against the daunting schedule they have coming up if they do not nip that in the bud.

Adonai Mitchell is going to be a star. The freshman wide receiver led the Dawgs in receiving on just four receptions totaling 77 yards and 1 touchdown. He had a long on 38. In limited playing time, he has racked up 6 receptions for 119 yards. He and J.T. seem to have very good chemistry and he will need to continue to play well while Georgia’s weapons continue to heal from injury.

Gamecock fans should stay confident in Beamer’s culture. All throughout this past week, I’ve felt more confidence from South Carolina fans than I have in a while. Beamer is getting his players, coaches, and fans to really buy into this program and believe in what they are doing. That usually translates to winning in the future. He has to be given time though, as he is taking the reigns of a program in shambles.