2024 Week 1 Takeaways and UGA vs TN Tech

welcome to the dog Vault a Georgia Bulldogs podcast where we talk about all things Georgia football as well as the college football landscape in general uh today we're talking the biggest takeaway from Georgia's win over Clemson and week one as well as kind of the big story around college football in general which is that Florida State it's kind of imploding right now so yeah stick around we'll get into that let's get started [Music] all right so diving right in here to Georgia's wi over Clemson um biggest Takeaway on this is that that Georgia defense is fast it is athletic it is uh instinctual quick to react I think it's got a good chance of being the best Kirby Smart Georgia defense other than that 2021 defense and just had um insane talent and depth in the front seven what really stands out to me even on this defense um that's kind of leading the way in the talent and the depth you know what I think is the the best unit on the defense is the linebacker room um guys like CJ Allen raayan Wilson Jaylen walker uh smile mundan um is back healthy after struggling through some injuries last year those are the main guys in that room and they are um now in their second and third years in the program and they are looking looking strong to put it lightly I think this Georgia Line room has a chance to have us looking back at the end of the year and saying that that linebacker room was the best unit on any team in college football and to I was talking to a Ohio State fan who's a friend of mine um over the past few days about how I felt about this linebacker room and to kind of put it in in Ohio State terms put it in context for him I was saying that um it kind of makes me feel the way I would think Ohio State fans felt about their receiver room the past few years when they had guys you know they had Marin Harrison Jr um Juliet slimming they've still got a mea abuka when that was kind of the the widely accepted best best unit in college football Georgia's linebacker room has a chance to make that kind of impact on the defensive side of the ball and kind of what uh stands out to me on the defense as an individual player is Malachi Starks everybody I'm sure has seen just the crazy interception he had against Clemson falling backwards leaping twisting to make a really athletic play on the ball reminiscent of um the interception adding his organ a few years ago and kiry's talked about how you know he's he's a great kid he's a smart kid um he's got great football instincts and it's exciting to me to think about what the possibilities are with him having played so many snaps at the nickel position on Saturday you know he's he's he's normally at safety because of an injury to Janelle Aguero they slid him down to Nickel they put KJ Balden The Freshman safety and Starks his role and both of those guys performed well at those positions and it's exciting to think about getting Starks more snaps there because you know that nickel position is it's a high impact position obviously you're you're playing in pass coverage you're also close to the box and run support you've got chances to be close to the ball on every play you look at the guys that Georgia has had in that position the past couple years you got Javon Bullard made a huge impact in several postseason games tyi Smith um LED Georgia in several defensive categories last last year from that position so so yeah it's a high impact position that that Starks could excel at you know Kirby made a comments I don't remember if it was like a press conference or just an interview that he was doing um but he made the comment that Starks would be Georgia's best defender at about five different positions on that defense which is just crazy to think about one guy being your best player at five different positions um compared him to Champ it's a huge compliment you know Kirby doesn't throw out compliments lightly so to get that kind of comparison is a big deal um and it just yeah it's exciting to think about the possibilities of getting Starks into that position more often especially you know if Georgia feels as good as it seems that they felt about KJ Balden getting significant playing time at safety they have to feel good about it to put him out there you know within the first couple series of his first ever college game that's a big deal that doesn't happen very often in Georgia's defense you I think the last the last person that I remember getting that type of confidence and respect was Starks a few years ago that safety so yeah super exciting possibilities there so the Georgia defense it'll be interesting to see how many staps Starks gets and nickel going forward um you know even if he sees increase snaps there um he'll still be splitting time with a growth rotating in and out of there in and out of safety um you know it could be a rotation getting guys into different spots but just having that kind of extra tool in your belt to get your best player into a impactful position like that is exciting for the defense all right now talking biggest takeaway from the national landscape of college football from week one and even going back to week zero um you know everybody's talking about it it's Florida State just imploding um this was a team that was 13-1 last year started 13-0 the ACC Championship and then you know they had a ton of opt outs before the bll game um they got blown out by Georgia which um you know it did actually happen um I know there's been some attempts to revise history and present Florida State as an undefeated team last year I've got the orange ball DVR I can queue it up and show it to you it did actually happen um so but Florida state had a great year last year um they shouldn't be they shouldn't be you know trying to sweep that under the rug like it never happened they still had a good year they started 13 and0 they lost a quarterback they had opt outs still a good season but yeah Florida State weak zero got manhandled by Georgia Tech the score was you know only a three-point margin by Georgia Tech dominated the line of scrimmage in that game pushed him around physically same thing happened to them against Boston College but that was at home makes it even worse and the score was not as close as the 20183 would what the score was 28-13 the game did not play out or feel as close as a 28 to 13 score would indicate so yeah rough couple of weeks and I I think so getting to my Takeaway on what this happening to Florida state says about college football is that I think it's showing that the way they are overring on the transfer portal is not going to lead to a year in and year out sustainably top tier type of team and program if you look at teams like Florida State teams like um Colorado that are just really seeing a lot of roster turnover bringing in a lot of transfers every year it's leading to some inconsistencies it's leading to questions about the culture whether guys are really bought in do they really want to be on those teams did they pick them for the right reasons it just doesn't have same feel or results that you get from teams like Georgia Alabama Ohio State Texas these teams who are year in and year out at the top of the sport because they prioritize High School recruiting they prioritize retaining the high school recruits that they get they prioritize developing those high school recruits that they get and they only use a transfer portal to supplement their team where they lose depth to the transfer portal inevitably um so yeah Florida State's imploding and you know I think it it says a lot about or raises questions about what really is the best Philosophy for building it sustaining it program to me the answer is clear maybe you have a different opinion it seems clear to me that the way they're going about being so riing on the transit portal is not the way to get things done all right so that's kind of my thoughts on the one biggest takeaway from Georgia football the one biggest takeaway from the national college football landscape now um since this is a Georgia Centric podcast uh we talk about the Georgia game every week no matter who they play even if it's Tennessee Tech um now I will admit I don't think that the Georgia vers Tennessee Tech game warrants the type of overview that we will typically give to the Georgia game each week so I'm just going to give you kind of what I want to see from the Georgia gam and look we know it's going to be a blowout the degree to which it is a blowout will depend on how focused and how motivated Georg is to play this game in the past we've seen that if they are interested in playing you that's really bad for you and if they're not interested in playing you you might not be able to win you might not even really be able to keep things super competitive depending on who you are but at least you got a chance to salvage some of your body parts on the way out of town so what do I want to see from Georgia vers Tennessee Tech I want to see a fast start from the offense the offense did not get off to a fast start against Clemson certainly caught fire in the second half and put the game away pretty easily pretty quickly but I would love to see a fast start from the offense the reason for that is well Circle back to the Clemson game what happened in the Clemson game is something that happened several times last year which is the offense and Carson back getting off to a slow start and I don't want to see that become a repeating pattern the way it popped up a few times last season back in the Clemson game you know there was a comment made on the broadcast that Beck had vocal ized to some teammates I think it was Dominic love it that he was having you know a hard time settling down he was amped up he needed to settle into the game and calm himself down and once he did he performed well just like the several times that happened last year but I would love to see them get off to a faster start and the reason for that is I don't want to feel uncomfortable and have a lack of confidence in how consistently this offense can execute when we go to these tough road games we've got coming up the next few weeks next week we've got uh Kentucky on the road at night you might think well it's just Kentucky I'm less concerned with ky's Personnel than I am with the fact that Kroger field at night with the number one team in the building is is going to be a legitimate rocket atmosphere and so I'll you know I would love to be able to feel confident that we can go in there and execute in that type of setting especially because it levels up from there you know it levels up to Kentucky and then two weeks later after up high it levels up to Alabama on the road at night and what will be an even bigger atmosphere and more rockus environment than Kentucky was so you know I'll feel better about having confidence and the offense being able to consistently execute if we come out fast start against Tennessee Tech put them away early show us you can you can you know consistently do what needs to be done from start to to finish or at least start till whenever the starters get pulled yeah that'll make me feel better about these next few weeks we've got coming up as we kind of start S play get into some tough road games another thing I would like see from this Georgia vers Tennessee Tech game is Just guys stay unhealthy we had enough um injuries coming into the season we had several more in the Clemson game although most of those seem to have turned out to be pretty minor and manageable I think the most serious one is just mik Kel Williams being out a couple of weeks with the angle spren you know I would think he would be back by Alabama which is when well really need him but yeah just just stay healthy another reason that a fast start will be beneficial because if we can get off to the fast start and put Tennessee Tech away early we can get the starters out of there and and make sure we avoid injuries leading into these next couple games that I already mentioned um so yeah that's what I want to see from Georgia this this Saturday against Tennessee Tech I'll be back in a few days talking about some of the other big games around the country in week two till then I hope you stay safe take care I'll see you next time [Music]