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What We Learned About the Georgia Bulldogs' Backup QBs - And What to Expect From Them vs. Western Kentucky

Can the Bulldogs repeat the bulldozer-like performance they had in the season opener? And will Ryan Puglisi continue to get the lion's share of snaps as the No. 2 quarterback?
Dean Legge|
Ryan Puglisi passes the ball against the Tennessee State Tigers at Sanford Stadium. (Dale Zanine / Imagn Images)
Ryan Puglisi passes the ball against the Tennessee State Tigers at Sanford Stadium. (Dale Zanine / Imagn Images) | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Georgia Bulldogs

ATHENS - Kirby Smart’s No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs will be massive favorites Between the Hedges in Sanford Stadium for the second game in a row - this time against the Wester Kentucky Hilltoppers.

The Bulldogs have been made 40.5-point favorites to beat Western Kentucky. That means UGA is slated to be favorites in back-to-back games by at least 40 points for the first time since facing Ball State and Tennessee-Martin to start the 2023 season.

Smart has traditionally used games where the Bulldogs are massively favored to show what players who are not starting have been doing during practice. After Georgia’s 63-3 win over Tennessee State, Smart said he was happy four UGA quarterbacks got a chance to play in front of the home crowd.

"It's great for them. It's really not so much about the development because they get those same reps every day in practice,” he said. “I'm glad for them and their families and the work they do and all the work they put in that they got to play and see a little bit of a reward for what they do.”

Perhaps the question of this game is two fold: Can the Bulldogs repeat the bulldozer-like performance they had in the season opener? And will Ryan Puglisi continue to get the lion's share of snaps as the No. 2 quarterback?

“I could tell you something each one did wrong, and they could probably do the same,” Smart said of his quarterbacks “But we'll watch the tape. We'll grow those guys. They'll continue to work. And the hardest job we have: promising those families and kids that we're not going to sit your kid on a shelf and not let him grow.”

What’s unlikely to be the same this weekend is the record-breaking heat from a week ago. The Bulldogs opened the season by kicking off under 101-degree temperatures. It is expected to be roughly 20 degrees cooler on Saturday when the Hilltoppers come to town.

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Dean Legge
DEAN LEGGE

After two-plus decades of covering the Georgia Bulldogs and the SEC, Dean Legge is one of the definitive voices in Athens and beyond. Legge has authored two books - DAWGSTRUCTION and DOUBLE DAWGS - with each chronicling Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs' run to national titles in 2021 and 2022. Legge has been a Heisman Trophy voter since 2005 and a Biletnikoff Award voter since 2009. He’s covered SEC Championships, Peach Bowls, Orange Bowls, Sugar Bowls, the Rose Bowl Game, College Football Playoff National Championship Games, the NCAA Tournament, the College World Series as well as a slew of college football, basketball and baseball games. Legge graduated from Coker College in 1999 with a degree in Political Science. He played both tennis and basketball for the Cobras. After graduating, Legge completed his academic career at the University of Georgia where he earned a Master of Public Administration from the School of Public and International Affairs in 2001. In 2008, Legge was elected President of the Coker College Alumni Association. He served on the Board of Trustees at Coker from 2009 to 2017 and was a member of the Executive Committee, Student Services and Enrollment Committee and Athletic Committee in that time. Legge is a native of Tucker, Georgia.

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