Defending back-toback national champion and top-ranked Georgia will open up its season on Saturday.
The Bulldogs will host FCS UT-Martin between the hedges at Sanford Stadium in each team’s opener.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and his staff have a lot of respect for the back-to-back OVC champs.
“Coach [Jason] Simpson and his staff have done a tremendous job when you talk about conference champs, which they’ve been,” Smart said. “A lot of their stats within their conference look very similar to ours in terms of being balanced, really good on offense and on defense. And we’ve played teams from that conference, and I know a lot of coaches in that conference.”
Simpson enters his 17th season at the helm and led the Skyhawks to a 7-5 record last season. They won the Ohio Valley Conference outright in 2021 and tied with Southeast Missouri State last year.
Georgia won’t take UT-Martin lightly under the direction of Smart, and the Skyhawks won’t back down from a fight. They faced two quality FBS opponents in Boise State and Tennessee in 2022.
According to Smart, the Bulldogs have watched plenty of film on UT-Marin and its tendencies, both on offense and defense. He wants to make sure his team understands how their opponent operates.
“We look at them schematically, and we try to figure out who they are, what they’ve done,” he said. “You watch all their games. You worry about yourself. You try to improve the things you do yourself.”
UT-Martin was a balanced offense last season, averaging 442.7 yards of total offense and scoring 33.4 points per game. The Skyhawks were led by quarterback Dresser Winn last year, but he has graduated.
It looks as if Ole Miss transfer Kinkead Dent will take over the starting duties. Dent, running back Sam Franklin and tight end DJ Nelson, a 2022 All-OVC First Team selection, will lead the offense. “They are a wellcoached, very good scheme team. Offensively, they’re like everybody you play,” Smart said. “There’s nobody that’s different anymore. It’s more of the same. You don’t see a triple option. What do they do offensively? They’re very similar to everybody else. They’ve got the ability to throw the ball on the perimeter. They throw RPOs. They run the ball well.“They have plays, they don’t block anybody in the interior and it doesn’t matter because the ball goes on the perimeter.”
Defensively, UT-Martin is led by 2022 All-OVC First Team and FCS All-American Second Team selection Daylan Dotson. The junior defensive end will anchor a young Skyhawks’ defense.
The UT-Martin defensive unit struggled last year. The Skyhawks gave up nearly 31 points per game to opposing offense last year, but hope to cut that total down in 2023, but it will be hard on Saturday.
“Defensively they’re similar to us. They can go three down, four down,” Smart said. “They primarily go out of an odd look and a three-down look, and we get to look at that a lot because we do it defensively. So we share ideas in terms of schematics when you watch us and them and when you watch their conference you see some similarities there.”
The Bulldogs enter as heavy favorites but will be without a few players heading into the season opener.
The eighth-year head coach announced last week that sophomore Branson Robinson will miss the season with an injury. However, he updated the status for several starters who could play on Saturday.
“Ladd [McConkey] is doing great. We had to shut him down for a little bit. He had a little bit of a back injury. He’s fine. He’s dealt with it before. He’s had it last year. He practiced Saturday and was good and expected to be out there today,” Smart said. “ … David Daniels had a little bit of turf toe. He came back out Saturday, was able to run, and hit some high speeds. He’ll be practicing with us. Kamari [Lassiter] and Smael [Mondon] have been practicing for the last couple of weeks.”
The Bulldogs and Skyhawks will kick off at 6:00 p.m. EST on ESPN+.