Georgia Football Winners and Losers from UGA's Blowout Win Over Arkansas Razorbacks

The Georgia Bulldogs traveled to Fayetteville, AR and beat the Arkansas Razorbacks 45-17. This was both the first road game and conference game of the season for the Dawgs. Kirby Smart and Georgia now move to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the SEC.

Saturday was not quite as easy for Georgia as the games against Western Kentucky and Tennessee State to open the season were, but this was still a really big win. Georgia has now opened the season covering three big betting lines in a row.

It wasn’t a perfect performance, and the offense had to punt a couple of times after Gunner Stockton-led drives for the first time this year, but there were still some Dawgs that had a huge game.

There were a few things we saw today for the first time, both good and bad, so let’s dive into the biggest winners and losers from Georgia-Arkansas.

Winners

Gunner Stockton’s Legs

Stockton only ran the ball one time over the course of the first two games. He put up incredible statlines in roughly three quarters of combined action, but they didn’t include any rushing stats.

Between scrambles and design runs, Stockton finished the game with 97 yards on seven attempts. He broke free for a 62-yard carry - the longest of his career - to set Georgia up in the red zone where it eventually scored a touchdown right before the end of the first half.

“He never got touched on that play. There was honestly good blocking,” Smart said of the play.

Stockton’s legs were a big factor for the 2025 team. He ran for over 450 yards last season along with 10 touchdowns. Today was the first time we saw him use his rushing capabilities as a weapon.

Smart was asked if there was any intention in using his legs against Arkansas.

“He never got touched on that play, there was honestly good blocking,” Smart said.

Georgia’s Run Defense

The Dawgs held Arkansas to just one yard on the ground through three quarters. That was pretty much all that the starting defense played. The final rushing total for the Razorbacks ended up being 17 yards. That is an elite number.

Part of this is due to game script with Arkansas trailing for the whole game and being pressed to pass the ball, but the Razorbacks averaged less than a yard per carry.

Georgia allowed about 60 yards per game on the ground between the first two games. That average will drop significantly after its best run-defense performance so far.

Part of what we were going to learn about this game was if Georgia could replicate some of its success from beating up on Tennessee State and Western Kentucky. When it comes to running defense, it may have leveled up.

Raylen Wilson

The senior leader was Dawg Post’s Player of the Game. He finished the contest with three total tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble on one of those sacks.

There is no linebacker on this team with the same amount of experience as Wilson. Today, he showed that he is still the alpha in the middle of the defense, forcing the first turnover for Georgia in conference play.

Khalil Barnes

This was the senior’s first SEC game in red and black after playing for Clemson the previous three seasons, and he showed out.

Barnes is playing the nickelback position for the Dawgs this year - something we have seen Georgia do with transfer defensive backs. He made a few big plays in the win.

Smart said that the No. 1 thing that Barnes brings to the table for Georgia is his intelligence. He called him wise. Junior safety KJ Bolden said similar things of Barnes after the game as well. He said that Barnes’ experience and leadership have been vital for Georgia’s defense so far this season.

Barnes finished the game with four tackles, a tackle for loss and a pass breakup.

Losers

Offensive Line

Georgia ran the ball well. Finishing with over 250 rushing yards is an impressive feat in an SEC game, especially on the road. A lot of the credit goes to the offensive line when that happens, and Smart gave them that credit.

The reason they are in this category is because Stockton was sacked three times by the Razorback defense. Stockton was hardly even pressured in the first two games. Arkansas applied pressure on several plays and was able to get two Stockton quickly on three separate occasions.

One of the sacks came on a third down play where Georgia was in the red zone. The Dawgs were forced to kick a field goal.

Senior left tackle Earnest Greene III said that they have to go back and watch the film and figure out how to get better because not all sacks are created equally and they don’t want to assign quick blame when it isn’t obvious where it should go.

Maybe Smart's shortest answer in the postgame press conference was in response to a question about the offensive line allowing multiple sacks today.

“We have to get better,” Smart said.

Demello Jones (kind of)

Jones was targeted a lot in the first half and he allowed a handful of big plays to happen in the passing game for Arkansas. He was targeted multiple times on Arkansas’ final drive of the second quarter, leading to the Razorbacks putting a field goal on the board right before halftime.

“At the end of the day, when you play corner at Georgia you are going to play 1-on-1 and you’re going to win some and you’re going to lose some,” Smart said.

Jones bounced back with a better performance in the second half, and ended up leading Georgia with six tackles on the day.

“I was proud of the way Demello (Jones) bounced back,” Smart said.

Backup Defense

Georgia’s reserves have allowed all but three of the points that have been scored on the Dawgs so far this season. Arkansas was able to find the end zone twice against Georgia’s reserves in the second half. This also occurred last week against Western Kentucky.

Smart seemed to be pretty upset in the postgame press conference after the Western Kentucky game. He revealed today that it had a lot to do with that. Smart’s day was “ruined” last week by Western Kentucky getting into the end zone against the Dawgs, but he told the media he wasn’t going to let it ruin his day this time.

Still, he was not happy about it.

“Piss poor performance from the guys at the end,” Smart said.

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