Field Street Forum

24

Mississippi St. 2-5

31

 Georgia 5-2

ATHENS, Ga. – The 13th-ranked Georgia Bulldogs defeated Mississippi State Saturday night 31-24 under the lights of Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium in front of a crowd of 20,524 and a nationally-televised audience on SEC Network.

In his Georgia debut, redshirt-sophomore quarterback JT Daniels completed 28-of-38 passes for a career-best 401 yards. Daniels became the first Georgia quarterback to pass for 400 yards since Aaron Murray against Auburn in 2013. Daniels is the seventh Bulldog to throw for at least 400 yards in a game.

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By John Frierson
Staff Writer

One month and 11 days ago, the Georgia football team walked off of Dooley Field and into its locker room after a 44-21 whipping of Tennessee. On Georgia’s giant video board at Sanford Stadium on Saturday night, about 15 minutes before Jake Camarda crushed the opening kickoff, were two words that resonated: Welcome Back!

And welcome aboard to JT Daniels, who put on a spectacular show in the 13th-ranked Bulldogs’ 31-24 win over Mississippi State. Daniels became the third quarterback to start a game for Georgia this season, taking over for Stetson Bennett and D’Wan Mathis. After throwing for 401 yards and four touchdowns, his first snaps in a Georgia uniform couldn’t have gone much better.

“It feels really good,” Daniels said.

A lot has happened between that Oct. 10 romp over the Vols and Saturday night’s return, against Mississippi State. There have been a pair of losses to very tough, top-10 teams, at Alabama and against Florida in Jacksonville — losses that took the Bulldogs’ SEC East fate out of their hands for the first time in several years and losses that were impacted by inconsistent quarterback play. There also was a grind-it-out 14-3 win at Kentucky on Halloween, and last week there was the postponement of Georgia’s trip to Missouri because the Tigers were having coronavirus issues.

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Daniels Makes Bulldog Debut: In his first action for Georgia, redshirt sophomore transfer JT Daniels (28-for-38, 401 yards, 4 TDs) set a career high for passing yards and TD passes. His previous best was 349 yards versus Notre Dame in 2018 and he had three TD passes twice before while at USC. Daniels became the first Bulldog QB to throw for more than 400 yards in a game since Aaron Murray in 2013 against Auburn when he went for 415. Daniels is the seventh Bulldog to throw for at least 400 yards in a game. He became the third different Bulldog to start at quarterback this year. The Bulldogs finished with 409 yards of total offense.

Down 3-0 in the first, he led an 11 play, 69-yard TD drive in 5:14. It was his 16th career TD pass and first as a Bulldog, connecting with George Pickens for four yards. Also, he had a 49-yarder to freshman Jermaine Burton. Down 17-10, he directed a 70-yard TD drive on seven plays, culminated when he connected with Burton on 3rd-and-7 for an 18-yard TD with 30 seconds left in the first half. To open the second half, Daniel and Burton connected on a 48-yard TD to finish a 75-yard drive on eight plays to go up 24-17. On a 3rd-and 20, he found Kearis Jackson for a 40-yard TD to put Georgia up 31-24. It completed a 9 play, 72-yard drive.

The 2006 season marked the last time Georgia started three different QBs in a season in Joe Tereshinski III, Matthew Stafford and Joe Cox. That year, the Bulldogs went 9-4 capped by a victory over Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

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