What a delicious set of storylines for a season-opening game.
By Matt Zemek
Oregon enters its season with a brand-new leader, Dan Lanning. The Ducks’ new architect will take the sideline in his first game as a collegiate head coach. His opponent will be his boss from the 2021 season. Lanning will go up against Kirby Smart, who hired Lanning as defensive coordinator at Georgia and won the national championship at Lanning’s side.
Lanning was hired in December as Oregon’s newest head coach, but he stayed on with Georgia to coach the Bulldogs in the College Football Playoff semifinals and championship game. Georgia won its first national title since the 1980 season.
As Kirby Smart begins the defense of his national title, he must beat a former colleague on the opening weekend of the season if he wants to have UGA fully in line for a repeat. Let’s look at a few keys to this highly-anticipated season opener:
1 – Bo Nix, Throw Picks
Georgia knows how to limit Bo Nix, the former Auburn quarterback who transferred to Oregon in the offseason. Forcing Oregon into a lot of three and outs would be a good outcome for Georgia and its defense, but intercepting Nix and getting turnovers which provide great field position would be an even better outcome, since Georgia has lost over 12 players to the pros and might need to take some time to adjust to those personnel changes this season. The most direct path to victory for Georgia in this game is to rattle Bo Nix and make him overthink. If UGA can do that, it simply isn’t going to lose.
2 – Defensive front, especially on the interior
Oregon will want to run the ball and shorten the game. If Georgia wants to make this a low-drama affair, it will take away the power running game up the middle and will force Nix to pass. Georgia doesn’t want Oregon to drain too much clock, but the Dawgs’ losses up front (to the NFL) mean that UGA could be vulnerable to a smashmouth approach from Oregon. UGA should sell out against the run in any obvious running situation.
3 – Finding a receiver
The Georgia passing game was good enough to win the national title last year, but if the Dawgs are going to repeat, their passing attack needs to be even better in 2022. This offense was clunky at times last year. Weeding out the limitations is something the Dawgs have to do if they want to win back-to-back championships.
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