No. 3 Georgia's season opener turned into the mismatch everyone circled on the schedule, and then some — a 60-point margin that still found new ways to pile up.
Gunner Stockton opened his second full season under center by carving up an overmatched Tennessee State secondary, going 15-of-16 for 202 yards and 3 touchdowns before giving way to the bench. Stockton is chasing another SEC title and a return trip to the College Football Playoff after getting Georgia there last year, and this one was about shaking off rust more than solving a scheme — Tennessee State came in off a brutal 2-10, 0-8 OVC season under second-year coach Reggie Barlow, and it showed from the opening series.
−Smart's teams historically shaky covering monster spreads
Running back Nate Frazier turned 4 carries into 3 touchdowns, and tight ends Jaden Reddell and Elyiss Williams both found the end zone working alongside All-SEC tight end Lawson Luckie — the kind of complementary weapons that make Georgia hard to key on even in a laugher like this. None of it needed much beyond execution: Tennessee State's defense had a beating like this coming, and Georgia's closing number as a 49.5-point favorite reflected a market that was already fully bought in before kickoff.
It was 100 degrees at kickoff, the hottest season-opening game in Georgia history, and the heat turned out to be the closest thing to a variable in the building. Georgia scored on 5 straight possessions to build a 35-0 lead, and by the time Tennessee State got its only points on the board, the only real question left was whether the closing number would hold.
Georgia finished with 660 total yards to Tennessee State's 109, and the disparity showed up as much in the trenches as in the skill-position numbers — the Tigers simply didn't have the bodies to hold up for four quarters against SEC-caliber depth. Backups saw plenty of snaps in the second half, and the scoring never really slowed down even once the starters came off.
For Tennessee State, this was the tougher half of a brutal season-opening stretch that started with a Classic against Jackson State before the trip to Athens — a gauntlet Barlow's rebuild had little choice but to survive. For Georgia, it's on to the meat of an SEC schedule with national title aspirations very much alive, and a home crowd that will demand a lot more resistance than this one offered.
