Of all the hot takes in the world…

Despite having a shot at the No. 1 class, Georgia did miss out on some of its top targets in the 2020 cycle: https://t.co/UOECNLcepa

— DawgNation (@DawgNation) December 31, 2019

… that is the one I would have expected from DawgNation.

“Everybody gets a piece of the pie. Everybody eats.”

If I’m worried about whom Jake Fromm will be throwing the ball to tomorrow (along with how well the blocking holds up), I’m not that worried about life on the other side, even with the absentees.  Why?  Because ($$).

Georgia embraced the no-name defense ethos because it lacked that superstar that other teams schemed around, a la Roquan Smith in 2017 and Deandre Baker in 2018. But the Bulldogs made up for it with their depth, using as many as 24 players in the regular rotation, with only Reed never coming off the field. It was a multi-layered depth: The starters tended to be a motley collection of former three-stars and transfers, with only safety Richard LeCounte a former five-star. But off the bench came all those five-stars: Nakobe Dean as a third-down inside linebacker, Nolan Smith and Adam Anderson as pass rushers, Tyrique Stevenson as a dime package defensive back. And so on.

There’s definitely enough depth to hold up against Baylor, which is good by SP+ standards (25th), but no LSU.  Now, if they only have the attitude to match…

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Being there

With the absence of Brian Herrien and the questionable status of D’Andre Swift, Josh takes a look at three players who could receive more work in the Sugar Bowl than they have in any single game so far this season:  Zamir White, James Cook and Kenny McIntosh.

A matchup for the ages

Okay, not really.

Georgia’s Jake Fromm vs. Baylor’s exotic 3-3-5 defense: After watching several Baylor games from the 2019 season, its difficult to figure it out on defense. It’s a unique, exotic look and one that Fromm hasn’t really seen in his career. The coverages are similar to what the Bulldogs have seen but the blitzes aren’t. As previously stated, the Bears are going to take some chances and they don’t mind doing it on early downs. When they guess right and catch and offense trying to use play-action on first down, they can throw the quarterback for a big loss and wreck a drive before it gets started.

With that said, Fromm is a tough guy to outsmart. He hasn’t been himself the last five or six games but it’s difficult to put the “deer in the headlights” look on his face. His primary strengths are his ability to prepare and figure things out on the fly.

Dawgs247’s Take: Again, Baylor is going to create its negative plays and it won’t be a bad thing if Fromm just takes a few sacks in this game. Those won’t kill Georgia. What will hurt the Bulldogs the most is forcing the ball out to avoid the pressure and it ending up in the hands of a guy wearing green. The Bears do some creative stuff with underneath coverage designed to rob short, quick routes. Fromm will have to be careful with the football and sometimes do whatever it takes to make it to the next down.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned this season, it’s that you don’t have to be particularly creative with underneath coverage to rob Georgia’s offense of access to short, quick routes.

That being said, you’d think a 3-3-5 scheme would be just what the manball doctor ordered, but we’ll see how that re-jiggered o-line fares against what I expect will be a massive amount of stunts and run blitzes to offset Baylor’s size disadvantage.