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3
Georgia-49, Oregon-3 | Mercedes-Benz Stadium - Atlanta
Issue 3
OREGON
2022National
Champions
Edition
Back-To-Back
BY JEFF DANTZLER
The last time Georgia
played a season opener
as the reigning national
champions, the Bulldogs
toppled Tennessee 44-0 in Athens
to kick off the 1981 season. It
would be ambitious for even the
most confident of Georgia fans to
think the Dogs could do that to
one of the PAC-12’s top programs
and preseason favorites, especially
considering the familiarity factor of
first-year head coach Dan Lanning,
fresh off coordinating Georgia’s
2021 national championship
defense.
It was a performance for the ages,
as Georgia dominated every
phase of the game in the 49-3
victory. With Stetson Bennett
the unquestioned starter at
quarterback, the Bulldogs offense
was overwhelming and efficient.
The Bulldogs scored touchdowns
on their first seven possessions,
distributing the football in a
variety that had the Ducks bills
spinning. The defense, replacing a
slew of departed greats now in the
NFL, kept high powered Oregon
out of the end zone.
Heading into the season as the
consensus No. 3 team in the
country behind only Alabama and
Ohio State, the nature and margin
of this triumph sent notice, as
National Coach of the Year Kirby
Smart said in the summer, “we will
not be hunted at the University
of Georgia.” The Bulldogs jumped
Ohio State and moved to No. 2
nationally and served notice that
they would once again be the
team to beat in the Southeastern
Conference East Division race.
BULLDAWGILLUSTRATED 90 2022 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS EDITION