Gil Pound: Pound for What to watch for
Sep. 1—I goofed. I flubbed. I am a simpleton.
Last week I gave picks and score predictions for every University of Georgia 2021 regular season football game.
Well, almost every game.
Your hometown sports editor flat out accidentally omitted the Nov. 13 Georgia-Tennessee matchup. To my credit, it's pretty easy to forget a division opponent the Dawgs have defeated nine of the last 11 years. It's a little like Doc Holliday in the movie "Tombstone" after he stops Johnny Tyler from exacting revenge on an unaware Wyatt Earp. "Oh Johnny, I apologize. I forgot you were there. You may go now."
I did fix my oversight online when I got to the office last Wednesday. So, for my print readers, here's my long-awaited prediction for the 2021 game in Knoxville.
Week 11: Georgia at Tennessee
The Dawgs have won the last four meetings handily in this annual contest that's supposed to be a division rivalry. The recent streak has allowed UGA to take the lead in the all-time series versus the Vols, and if they don't do anything to get better then they might never take the lead again. Tennessee is trying with a new head coach in Josh Heupel. I remember him as a player at Oklahoma. I'm not old enough for that, am I? First-year coaches don't fare well in this league. It's that second one you have to watch out for. Georgia 45, Tennessee 17.
Now that's out of the way, here's what I'm watching for as we head into the first full weekend of college football.
Non-conference headliner
At the top of the list is the biggest game: No. 5 Georgia versus No. 3 Clemson in Charlotte. I keep reading about the implications of this cross-conference matchup. At this point, I'm a lot less worried about what the result means for the rest of the season and am instead much more focused on how Kirby Smart's Bulldogs look against what has been an elite Clemson program. Does Georgia really open up its offense and start resembling Alabama last year or LSU two years ago? Or will it be the same old run-first, stand tall on defense mentality? For the record, I'm fine with either.
We all saw what Clemson's new starting QB DJ Uigalelei could do in a big game last year against Notre Dame. How impressive will he be now that the reins are his? He's got a couple of tough acts to follow in Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson, both quarterbacks originally from Georgia.
The undercard
Next is another non-conference matchup to be played at 3:30 Saturday in Atlanta. Top-ranked defending national champ Alabama faces Miami inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Not many people believe this game will be close, but it will be interesting to see what this less experienced 'Bama squad will look like against a preseason ranked opponent. The Tuscaloosa school has a new quarterback, new running back, mostly new wide receiving corps and a defensive player in Will Anderson (from Hampton, Ga.) who's expected to be a game-wrecker.
New to the neighborhood
There are a lot of new head coaches around the SEC. Auburn, South Carolina and Tennessee all have someone different people at the helm than they did last year. They each did a good job with scheduling because none of them open against a particularly tough opponent, but I'll still be checking in to see what the new regimes do. Keep a particularly close eye on the Gamecocks who Tuesday named Zeb Noland (from Oconee County, Ga.) their starting quarterback. He came to Columbia as a graduate assistant coach, but was called out of the bullpen to join the roster a few weeks ago due to injuries among SC QBs. He played at Iowa State and more recently North Dakota State during his previous playing days. He thought he had hung the cleats up, but he has one more year of eligibility the Gamecock staff is putting to use.
VIPs only?
This one is more of something to watch as the season wears on because one week will not provide enough information. The College Football Playoff has had an unintended consequence since being instituted in 2014. The 28 slots (seven years times four entrants) have been filled by just 11 programs. Alabama, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington are the only schools to make the four-team bracket. That's a pretty exclusive club, and all signs point to that club not gaining any new members this year. Four out of these five — Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State, and Oklahoma — are the most common picks to make the CFP this year. To that I say, bring on expansion.
Happy viewing, college football fans.
