College Football Game of the Week: Georgia vs. Arkansas
Week 5 in the SEC brings a top-10 matchup to really get excited about, but it's not who you would think. This Saturday at noon, the No. 8 Arkansas Razorbacks head to Athens to battle the No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs.
Both teams come into the game with identical 4-0 records and are looking for another signature win to add to their resumes as they move into conference play. Let's take a deeper dive into one of the biggest games of the season so far.
Georgia is coming off an easy win where the Bulldogs absolutely destroyed Vanderbilt 62-0.
Redshirt-junior quarterback JT Daniels led his team to a 35-0 lead in the first quarter, and the team never looked back. Daniels was 9-of-10 passing and threw for 129 yards and two scores before head coach Kirby Smart decided to sit him for the remainder of the game to rest a still-healing oblique injury that forced him not to play against UAB in Week 2.
Meanwhile, Arkansas upset No. 7 Texas A&M, winning 20-10, putting the Razorbacks into the top-10 in the AP Poll. Redshirt-sophomore quarterback KJ Jefferson and junior wide receiver Treylon Burks suffered injuries against the Aggies, but head coach Sam Pittman says he doesn't believe it will be a problem against Georgia.
Arkansas opened this week as 17.5-point underdogs against the mighty Georgia Bulldogs, but the Razorbacks have been proving the doubters wrong all season long. Arkansas did not receive any votes in the preseason poll and now find themselves at No. 8, proving that just about anything can happen in college football.
The Las Vegas over/under for this game is 49.5, but this game just doesn’t scream high-scoring affair. Georgia is ranked first in total defense in the FBS, while Arkansas sits in twelfth. Neither team has allowed more than four yards per play this season.
This Razorback team is lightyears ahead of the one Georgia throttled 37-10 in last year's season opener. They've had much better quarterback play this season and are much more physical on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
It's going to come down to the explosive Arkansas offense versus the stout Georgia defense. The Bulldogs have allowed 5.8 points per game while the Razorbacks have put up an impressive 35.8 points per game.
Georgia will need to key in on Jefferson this week, although he is a little banged up. Jefferson is the only quarterback in the SEC that has thrown for over 800 yards and rushed for over 200. He also leads the nation with 18.4 average yards per completion.
Athens will be buzzing this whole week as College Gameday has decided to broadcast from Myer's Quad, about half a mile from Sanford Stadium. There has been some outrage in the Georgia community as the week's biggest game is being played at noon, not in primetime.
The deciding factor in this game is honestly going to be experience and pedigree. Despite both being highly ranked, these two teams are very different when you take an in-depth look at them.
Before this year, Arkansas had not been ranked since they were No. 16 in 2016. Coincidentally, 2016 was the last season the Razorbacks played in a bowl game, losing to No. 18 Virginia Tech 35-24 in the Belk bowl.
Conversely, Georgia has been a powerhouse for roughly half a century. The Bulldogs have been ranked every season since 1996 and have been championship contenders since the inception of the College Football Playoff.
Expect Georgia to have the upper hand for the majority of this one. Arkansas will attempt a comeback, but it will be too little too late as the Georgia defense will finish things off.
Prediction: Georgia 27, Arkansas 20
JC Colavita is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. You can contact him via email at jrc6383@psu.edu.
