GA News: OnlineAthens - Gameday blog: UGA-UNC in Chick-fil-a Kickoff Game

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From OnlineAthens.com
September 3rd, 2016 01:29 PM

ATLANTA--Greetings from the Georgia Dome where football season is finally here for the team from Athens that wears the red and black.
It’s been months and months of talk, stories and speculation about what Kirby Smart’s brand of Georgia football will look like. Now we get to find out for ourselves with an actual game.
It seems like it was three years ago since Georgia played a game with a skeleton coaching staff against Penn State in a Jacksonville bowl. That gave the Bulldogs a less than-satisfying 10-win season.
At about 5:30 p.m. today, the talk stops and an actual game is here.
“Oh, yeah, we need to get to a game,” Smart said. “It’s our next step. We need to show the progress we’ve made. I don’t think we can take more steps forward until we play a game.”
Everybody can’t wait to see Nick Chubb playing again after his season-ending knee injury last season.
That includes a MLB baseball hopeful.
"Man I hope for him he comes back healthy,” Tim Tebow said on the SEC Network. “He was one of the players that you just loved. His work ethic, his determination, the way he played the game."
Georgia’s equipment staff’s Twitter posted a photo from the locker room of running back jerseys laid out in the locker room, including Sony Michel. Stay tuned on his status for the game coming off a broken forearm. Georgia wasn’t saying on Friday.
Most Georgia players have never played in this venue, even in high school,
“If you know my high school, we didn’t make it that far,” said outside linebacker Davin Bellamy, who played at Chamblee. “This is going to be my first time playing in it. It’s just normal first-game jitters that everyone has. If you don’t have them then you’re not normal. As I look at this time, coach Smart does a great job of throughout the week of `It’s work hard and don’t think about Saturday and Saturday will take care of itself.’”
Some pregame updates:
-This game between an SEC and ACC team will be officiated by a Big Ten crew. The referee is Don Willard.
--Most of Georgia’s full-time assistant coaches will be on the field during the game.
They include offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, defensive coordinator Mel Tucker, offensive line coach Sam Pittman, defensive line coach Tracy Rocker, outside linebackers coach Kevin Sherrer, special teams coordinator Shane Beamer and either wider receivers coach James Coley or running backs coach Dell McGee.
In the coaches’ box upstairs will be inside linebackers coach Glenn Schumann and either Coley or McGree.
--Greyson Lambert is starting at quarterback from what Kirby Smart has said. So what about freshman Jacob Eason? North Carolina players have heard about him, too, this offseason, but cornerback Des Lawrence didn't sound overly concerned.
“Besides DeShaun Watson, there weren’t too many quarterbacks that were successful against us last year," Lawrence said. "Regardless of who they put out there, we’re going to treat it the same. I understand that he’s a big-time recruit and he has a good arm, a really good quarterback who is going to be a really good quarterback in the near future but at the end of the day, he has to go through us and at the same time we have to see him. It’s going to be a clash and I like my side.”
--Georgia players now arrive to games dressed in jacket and business attire. Lorenzo Carter may have looked sharpest. Eason went with jacket but no tie. Greyson Lambert did have a tie on.
--No surprise, but freshman defensive lineman Julian Rochester is indeed with the team and set to play after being cleared by a UGA committee after the BB gun incident this spring.
--So Michel is dressed out and his left forearm is wrapped. We shall see if that means he will play and how much.
--Jacob Eason drew cheers when he came onto the field to work on field goal and extra point. He is a holder.
--Offensive line coach Sam Pittman, who coached at North Carolina from 2007-10, greeted some Tar Heel staffers. He coached in this game in 2010 when LSU beat North Carolina 30-24.
--Not much of note off the dress list. Reserve inebacker Shaun McGee is not listed. Neither is walk-on kicker Mitchell Wasson. Neither, of course, is suspended defensive lineman Jonathan Ledbetter.
--Former Georgia star Hines Ward and Vince Dooley spent considerable time chatting on the sidelines pregame. Ward is doing the honors of presenting the game ball pregame.

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