UGA Football Counseling: Triumphs and Traumas from the Georgia Bulldogs' Season Opener

ATHENS - The Georgia Bulldogs are officially 1-0.

The Bulldogs slid up to the No. 2 team in the nation on Tuesday, and they’ve got a showdown with Western Kentucky Saturday afternoon Between the Hedges in Sanford Stadium.

Triumphs and Traumas - where are we one game into the season for the Dawgs? Here are our triumphs and traumas from Georgia’s season-opening victory.

Triumph: Gunner Stockton

Gunner Stockton passes the ball against the Tennessee State Tigers. (Dale Zanine-Imagn Images) | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Stockton was 15 of 16 for 202 yards. The offense was rolling when he was under center - scoring five touchdowns in a row before he gave way to Ryan Puglisi. The Tennessee is another in a long line of impressive performances from the Rabun County product.

“We came out and executed really well,” Stockton told Dawg Post after the 63-3 win. “There's still stuff to clean up, but I thought we communicated well and played pretty hard. But there's definitely stuff we need to clean up.”

Triumph: The Bulldog Defense

JJ Hanne (96) tackles Tennessee State Tigers WR Anthony Taylor. (Dale Zanine / Imagn Images) | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Tennessee State was massively outmatched, but the Bulldogs’ defense was something else against the Tigers. TSU neared halftime before it had positive yards on offense. Its only one week, but the Bulldogs have both the No. 5 total offense and total defense in the country.

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs have not allowed a touchdown in three of their last five outings.

Triumph: Georgia’s Run Game

Dwight Phillips Jr. (20) runs the ball against the Tennessee State Tigers. (Dale Zanine / Imagn Images) | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Kirby Smart said after the game that he was very happy with what he saw from the offensive line, and the running backs. Georgia racked up over 200 yards for the 62nd time under Smart.

“Some of those runs were you need to give the credit to the offensive line,” Smart told reporters after the game. “You need to give credit to Gunner who saw pressure and checked. I thought that by committee, that group worked really hard to have a good outing today.”

Trauma: Penalties

This wasn’t a problem at first, but after a while the Dawgs’ backup racked up 85 yards of penalties - far more than you would like even in the first game of the season. That’s the most amount of yards in penalties the Bulldogs have had in the last 24 games.

Trauma: The weather

That weather - goodness. It was the hottest game on record in Sanford Stadium history, and the hottest on record for any game the Bulldogs have played this century. This week in Athens is expected to be far fairer in terms of the heat - perhaps 20 degrees fewer than the Tennessee State game.

Fans shouldn’t expect another game like this one any time soon in Athens… thankfully.

“I thought to come out in 120 degrees, you can't ask everybody to do that,” Smart said after the game. “Look at some of the other programs around the country. They got out of there in that heat. We don't have that problem here. So our fans love it. I think they love coming to see each other and, they'll be here. They'll be here next week too.”

ATHENS - Fans during No. 3 Georgia’s 63–3 win over Tennessee State at Sanford Stadium on September 6, 2026. (Laney Martin / Dawg Post) | (Laney Martin / Dawg Post)

Trauma: Botched FG attempt

Is this something that could come back to cost Georgia in the future? How can we know? It cost the Dawgs three points against Tennessee State. Look for crisper execution from the Bulldogs on this front moving forward.

“It looked like we dropped it. I don't know. I’ve got to see a replay,” Smart said. “Looked like we dropped it. I mean, I didn't think it was a bad snap. I thought we just dropped it.”

The Bottom Line

It was a heck of a performance for Georgia against an outmatched FCS team. Georgia will get a chance to fine tune more this week against Western Kentucky - a team that was blown out by Nevada Saturday.

Then the real season starts - a road trip to Arkansas is seven days before what could be a top-ten showdown with an Oklahoma team that looked very good in its season opener.

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