State of Play: The final act for Georgia awaits

There is one particular goal for Georgia in its game against Charlotte on Saturday. 

Get out of it healthy.

The last thing Georgia needs is to suffer a major injury before the annual rivalry with Georgia Tech and a likely College Football Playoff berth to follow.

A secondary goal is to get the backups plenty of playing time. Don’t let this be a repeat of the Austin Peay game. Make it more like the Marshall contest, when Ryan Puglisi and the second team entered with a lot of time left to play. 

Georgia should cruise to a victory against Charlotte on Saturday in a final tune-up before the next act of the 2025 season. 

The key to the game 

Georgia needs to keep its focus, start fast, and not let up. Charlotte is not a good team and shouldn’t be able to hang with the Bulldogs.

There’s really not much else to it. The Bulldogs are playing like one of the best teams in the nation and the 49ers are statistically among the worst with a 1-9 record. Georgia just has to avoid playing down to its competition like it has done sometimes in the past.

SEC Everest

Chasing the summit: Texas A&M, Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama

A camp behind: Oklahoma, Vanderbilt

Advanced base camp: Tennessee, Texas, Missouri

Base camp: LSU

Not great, Bob: Mississippi State

Upset minded: Kentucky 

Going through the motions: Auburn

Roadkill run over again: Arkansas

Facepalm emoji: Florida

There are no words to describe this team: South Carolina

Games of note

No. 22 Missouri at No. 8 Oklahoma: The Sooners are riding a high after upsetting Alabama. It would be a shame for Oklahoma to come back down to Earth a week later in an upset loss to Missouri.

Kentucky at No. 14 Vanderbilt: The Commodores are hoping to sneak into the playoff with wins over Kentucky and Tennessee to close the season. However, the Wildcats have won three in a row and are playing much better than they were earlier this year. Are the Commodores on upset alert?

Pittsburgh at No. 16 Georgia Tech:  If Georgia Tech and Georgia win their respective games, there will be a ton of hype surrounding next week’s rivalry game. However, the Panthers would love to play spoiler after being embarrassed by Notre Dame last week.

ICYMI

An opportunity could come for some seldom-used Bulldogs on Saturday.

Kirby Smart has been happy with Isaiah Gibson’s development.

Andrew Beard has another unique experience at Georgia.

Five-star prospect DJ Jacobs recaps his recent visit to Athens.