MVDs: Tennessee State Edition

You do t steamroll the mighty Tennessee State Tigers 63-3 without knitting together a total team effort. Even then, some Bulldogs are bound to distinguish themselves above and beyond the crowd. These dauntless Dawgs are your MVDs, the Most Valuable Dawgs from Georgia’s season-opening win.

Offense: the offensive line.Sure, Gunner Stockton had an almost flawless start to the season. And Nate Frazier scored touchdowns on 3 of the 4 times he touched the dang ball. But the offensive line was the common denominator in both those performances. Did you see the holes Frazier was running through? I don’t want to crown this group the Joe Moore Award front runner. But if they can stay collectively healthy and continue to gel, they could be very, very good.

Defense: PJ Dean. I’m not sure the true freshman outside linebacker was technically the most valuable player on a Bulldog defense which uniformly played well. But his 1.5 sacks were a pretty eye-opening debut. His name had been one of those quietly bandied about as opening a lot of eyes in fall camp (along with freshman defensive tackle Valdin Sone, who also saw a lot of action). I’ll be very curious to see where Dean slots in the rotation going forward.

Special teams: Drew Miller. Sure, the junior punter only had one kick, a booming 65 yarder that rolled harmlessly into the end zone for a touchback. But his major contribution to the day was actually botching a hold on Peyton Woodring’s only field goal attempt of the day, preventing the Bulldogs from coming away with points on their sixth drive. This was a very valuable contribution because it will give Kirby Smart something to rage about on what could have been in otherwise self-congratulatory day. Thanks for taking one for the team, Drew.

Feel free as always to shout out your own MVDs in the comments. And…

Go ‘Dawgs!!!