Winners and Losers from the Georgia Bulldogs' 63-3 Win over Tennessee State

The Georgia Bulldogs opened the 2026 college football season with a huge win, crushing Tennessee State 63-3.

Kirby Smart and the Dawgs are now 1-0 and got through one of the hottest games ever played in Georgia history. Vegas had Georgia as a 47.5-point favorite over the Tigers so the Dawgs covered a huge betting line for the first time in a while.

Georgia was able to cycle through a lot of players on Saturday in the blowout win. Here are the winners and losers from the Dawgs’ season opener:

Winners

Nate Frazier

Frazier made it look way too easy in the first quarter. He broke free on his first carry for a 48-yard touchdown and then took his second touch to the house again from 14 yards out.

He didn’t return to the field after that. The coaches saw enough and chose to keep their RB1 out of harm’s way.

Frazier received a lot of hype heading into last season, and he largely did not live up to that. The explosive runs weren’t there and he had a couple of costly fumbles in September. He overcame that and got better as the season went on, reminding everyone who the starter was.

He talked about getting off to a fast start the other day in the weekly press conference. An explosive 48-yard score on your first touch of the season is exactly what he wanted.

Talyn Taylor

Probably the number one question that people had for this football team during the offseason regarded the wide receiver room. Do they have a go-to guys? Is the inexperience going to show? How can they replace Zachariah Branch?

He may not replace him, but the guy that is wearing No. 1 now is the leading candidate to be Georgia’s WR1 after the first game.

Taylor caught a screen pass from Gunner Stockton on the first play from scrimmage for Georgia. Then he caught a screen again on the first play of the second drive. Mike Bobo called his number on the third drive with an end around run that he took for 31 yards.

“He’s had really good practices. He’s worked very hard… He loves the game. He enjoys the game. I thought he did some really good things,” Smart said after the game.

Kyron Jones

Jones started at safety for Georgia in 2025, but was limited to just six games due to multiple injuries - he even played with a club on his hand at one point. He then missed the spring as he was recovering. He then was limited during fall camp.

Despite all of that, Jones started in the season opener, and he made plays as well. Jones finished the game with three tackles - one of them being a vicious wrap up.

Jones had to fight off talented youngster Rasean Dinkins, Zion Branch and the transfer defensive backs to get back into the starting lineup.

We will see if he holds his starting place as the season goes on, but today was a great start.

It is not completely surprising. Smart alluded to this possibility during August.

PJ Dean

Georgia needs edge rushers to step up. The Dawgs only sacked the quarterback 20 times last year.

The four-star true freshman from North Carolina got on the field quickly for Georgia’s defense. He along with fellow freshman Khamari Brooks played a significant amount of snaps on Saturday.

Dean finished the game with 1.5 sacks, which was a team-high. A player that can show pass rushing ability is a player that will get on the field for Georgia, even if it is just in certain packages.

Losers

Ryan Puglisi

Puglisi played better as his time in the game went on, but it was a rough start for the redshirt sophomore. His first throw downfield was way short, hitting a defender in the back. He eventually got into rhythm and finished with over 100 yards and a touchdown.

The kicker: There has been a lot of buzz about redshirt freshman Ryan Montgomery from insiders this offseason. Some viewers of Georgia’s practices and scrimmages think that Mongomery has been looking better than Puglisi. That carried into today.

Montgomery was 2/2 for 60 yards yards and a beautiful deep touchdown throw on the money.

CJ Wiley

According to sources, Wiley had a solid spring. Even with the transfer of Isiah Canion from Georgia Tech, the second-year player had some momentum. Georgia had two traditional X receivers last year, and both of them were good in Colbie Young and Noah Thomas. That spot is open.

It doesn’t look like Georgia necessarily needs that with the abundance of weapons they have, but Wiley is clearly not in contention for starting snaps right now. Georgia rotated a lot of receivers into the game before him, and Canion is clearly ahead of him as well.

Joseph Jonah-Ajonye

Jonah-Ajonye had two personal fouls and didn’t show up in the box score on Saturday. Gabe Harris Jr. and Quintavius Johnson are ahead of him on the edge. Multiple freshmen rotated in and made an impact.

People thought he would break out as an important player for Georgia’s defense last year, and while he was certainly in the rotation, he just wasn’t that impactful. This was not a good start for him.

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