Winners and Losers from Georgia Football's Huge Win Over Western Kentucky

The Georgia Bulldogs absolutely dismantled Western Kentucky on Saturday in Sanford Stadium. The Dawgs outdid themselves after winning 63-3 in the season opener. Georgia just hung 70 points on the Hilltoppers, hitting that score for the first time this century.

While it is surprising since Western Kentucky is a Group of Six team, the Hilltoppers got off to a rough start in their opener against Nevada, losing that game pretty badly. Kirby Smart’s group showed that it wasn't a fluke, along with its explosion.

Despite the poor competition, the Dawgs have gotten off to an extremely hot start. Georgia has now scored over 60 points in back-to-back games. Georgia had not reached that figure since the 2023 Orange Bowl win over Florida State.

After the games, we are picking some winners and losers. You have to get really nitpicky to pick losers with how well Georgia is playing right now, but we are going to try to do it.

Winners

Gunner Stockton

The starting quarterback threw five touchdown passes for the Dawgs against the Hilltopper defense. That ties the most ever for a Georgia quarterback in a single game. There was a moment toward the end of the second quarter where it looked like Smart might let Stockton have one more drive with a short field, but they pulled him for Ryan Puglisi.

Stockton finished the game completing 13/16 passes for 234 yards and five scores. That follows up his performance in the opener where he completed 15/16 passes for 202 yards and three touchdowns. That’s a hot start for the senior signal-caller, who will certainly have plenty of opportunities moving forward to strengthen his Heisman Trophy case.

Smart said in the postgame press conference that Stockton is executing at a high level and that the only criticism he had before watching the film was that his quarterback took a couple of unnecessary hits.

Tyriq Green

The true freshman defensive back out of Buford got to show off what he did in high school against Western Kentucky. He was a do-it-all player for the Wolves. He was a running back, a defensive back and a kick returner. He scored in a multitude of ways in the GSHA state title game less than a calendar year ago.

Against the Hilltoppers, he recorded two tackles and recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown on defense. In addition, he returned a kickoff for a 91-yard score - the first kick return touchdown by a Georgia player since 2016.

Sacovie White-Helton

Not only did White-Helton score his first career touchdown, he took a slant route 70 yards to the house. Last year, Zachariah Branch was the player on Georgia’s offense that you knew was a threat to score from any spot on the field once he got the ball in his hands. There were several questions about Georgia’s wide receiver room heading into this season with one of them being whether or not they had that type of weapon. White-Helton is not quite as explosive as Branch is, but he showed today that, if he has the angle, he has enough speed to outrun defenders for long gains.

Losers

There are no real losers. Remember that, but sometimes you can expect a little bit more out of some players.

Isaiah Gibson

The former five-star defensive end/edge rusher just seems to continue to get passed over for playing time by people in his class and the class below. Gibson did record a tackle against Western Kentucky and seemingly played more than the previous week, but he is not rotating in with the starters at all, and he is not in the primary rotation for what looks to be Georgia’s second-string defensive front.

Lawson Luckie

The senior tight end didn’t get targeted by any of the quarterbacks in the first game, and then hauled in his sole target today for a four-yard gain. Luckie is clearly a starter for the Dawgs and one of the leaders of this team, but Georgia is essentially starting four different tight ends. Jaden Reddell, Elyiss Williams and Ethan Barbour all have roles with the starters as well.

Luckie was projected to have a big year by many, but that doesn’t seem to be realistic with the way Georgia’s offense is spreading the ball around to an array of weapons. Plus, with three other tight ends heavily involved, he will likely rotate out of the lineup more.

He is not a loser, but his individual stats will take a hit in accordance to what people thought they could be as one of the only players in this offense with any real production heading into the year. Last year, we saw the “Lawson Luckie game” against Ole Miss where he scored three touchdowns. That could happen again.

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