It's game week! (Sorta.)
Saturday will be the only taste we will get of somewhat-real football until Labor Day. (Or whenever the NFL pre-season cranks up in August, but I never cared about that too much.)
G-Day is on Saturday, and with the excitement of a new coach, a hot-shot freshman QB and what figures to be excellent weather, this will probably set a record in terms of attendance.
But of course, there's also the prospect of the game itself, so here are a few things I plan to look for, and then overanalyze for the next eight months.
(Quick note: I'm not going to list the quarterbacks because, well, it's been written about more times than anyone cares to count.)
1) Tae Crowder.
I had written a while back about the third-string running back position, and how interested I was to see who might grab a hold of it. That conversation included A.J. Turman, who has since announced his intention to transfer.
Now it's down to Brendan Douglas, a senior, and Crowder, a redshirt freshman, to figure out who's going to be the primary Sony Michel/Nick Chubb backup.
Douglas is a known commodity — a good pass protector and decent change-of-pace back, but Crowder remains a mystery ... unless you're me. (Insert winking emoji here.)
I actually had a chance to see him in his last high school game, against Gainesville in the second round of the 2014 playoffs.
And he didn't disappoint.
Crowder, at least against a talented Red Elephant defense, fit the mold of a faster Douglas. He's a bruising, punishing runner, but not one with elite, break-away speed.
He also has excellent hands (he played H-back and tight end in Harris County's offense) and balance, so I'm interested to see how much a year in college has affected those abilities I saw on that cold November night.
Both he and Douglas figure to get a good chunk of the carries since the coaches will likely be protecting Michel from too much contact.
2) A receiver not named Terry Godwin.
With Malcolm Mitchell gone, Godwin remains the only proven commodity at receiver, outside of perhaps Isaiah McKenzie, though we know the speedster from South Florida is at his best in the return game.
So ... who steps up to take the pressure off Godwin?
There are bigger, more physical receivers like Jayson Stanley, Michael Chigbu or Shakenneth Williams, who fit the molds of Chris Conley and Michael Bennett from years' past, and would provide a complement to Godwin's speed and elusiveness.
There's also the option of utilizing the tight ends more in the passing game, something former Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer was often criticized for NOT doing.
Jeb Blazevich, Jordan Davis and Jackson Harris have all proven themselves able pass catchers, and that should only be bolstered by early enrollees Isaac Nauta and Charlie Warner.
Warner figures to be a hybrid tight end/receiver, a la Orson Charles, while Nauta looks the part of a pure tight end.
3) A kicker.
Lost among the stories of Chubb's recovery, player arrests and the quarterback derby is the fact that Georgia needs a kicker.
All you need to do is rewatch last year's game against Missouri to figure out why a good kicker is important.
The race right now seems to be between redshirt freshman Rodrigo Blankenship and redshirt sophomore William Ham, though four other kickers are listed on the official roster: Tanner Stumpe (R-So.), Mitchell Rostowsky (Fr.), Thomas Pritchard (Sr.) and Cole Gibbon (R-So.).
I'd say the battle for the starting kicker's job is second only to the starting quarterback race in terms of importance.
A lack of quality at either position can be disastrous.
Just ask Florida.
