Georgia football: 10 things I’ll remember most about this regular season

Georgia finished the regular season with a solid thumping of in-state rival Georgia Tech on Saturday, and the 45-21 score doesn’t do justice to the beatdown that the Bulldogs handed out. Two late touchdowns by Tech were completely meaningless.

It was a perfect snapshot to encapsulate this season. Georgia was wildly impressive, but some outsiders might look at the score and think otherwise. That’s a shame, because this has been a great season for the Bulldogs. They’ve gotten through the regular season 11-1, with the only loss at LSU, and they’ve got their ticket punched to next week’s SEC Championship Game in Atlanta against No. 1 Alabama.

Here are the 10 things that I’ll remember most about this regular season:

1. How Jake Fromm handled all the Justin Fields noise

We watched the quarterback coup at Alabama and the QB blowup at Clemson, but with all the banter about freshman Justin Fields, all sophomore quarterback Jake Fromm did all season long was just do his job. He has played well, but he has been an even better leader. Since the loss to LSU, Georgia has bounced back to the win the SEC East, and Fromm was a big reason. Since then, he’s had a near-perfect QBR rating of 94, was sacked only once and completed 73 percent of his passes. He’s proven himself in a big way. He was nearly perfect again Saturday, going 13-for-16 passing for 175 yards and 4 touchdowns. He is clearly the starter here, and Georgia’s better for it.

2. How Georgia’s defense turned games around so quickly

At the beginning of the season, there were plenty of “experts” who wanted to take their shots at the Bulldogs, and some predicted upsets in those early road SEC tests at South Carolina and Missouri. That didn’t happen, mostly because the Georgia defense scored on the first possession and Georgia played with a lead from the get-go. Georgia’s All-America cornerback, Deandre Baker, intercepted a pass and took it a yard from the house on the fourth play of the game against South Carolina. Two weeks later, freshman cornerback Tyson Campbell returned a fumble 64 yards on Missouri’s first possession. There is no way to understate the impact of playing from ahead in pressure-packed games. This was huge, and set the tone for a season.

3. How D’Andre Swift ended his season in style

It was disappointing for D’Andre Swift to not be healthy early in the season. He was battling groin and ankle injuries, but this last half of the season has been something special. Swift has had four 100-yard games in the past five weeks, including 105 yards on just 14 carries Saturday against Georgia Tech. He now has 857 yards on the season and is averaging a whopping 6.9 yards per carry. He’s one special running back.

4. How, shockingly, only D’Andre Walker could get to the quarterback

Georgia had only 20 sacks all season, which is pathetic considering all the talent they have on defense. Even crazier is that after D’Andre Walker’s 6.5 sacks, there wasn’t another teammate who had multiple sacks. Georgia’s coaches have said that the low sack number doesn’t tell the whole story, and that pressure has been  there, but there’s no denying that after Walker, there are issues.

5. How Rodrigo Blankenship just keeps making one kick after another

There are plenty of coaches — and fan bases — that will tell you that there’s nothing more frustrating than missing a field goal after a productive drive. Georgia hasn’t had to worry about that the past few years, because Rodrigo Blankenship has been that good. He’s made 19-of-22 field goals and has 74 of 88 kickoffs that have gone for touchbacks. It’s really nice to not have to worry about anything bad happening in the kickoff game.

6. How literally everything went wrong in the one loss at LSU

There is one bad memory from this season, and that was the ugly 36-16 loss at LSU. Georgia got knocked around on both sides of the ball, which was really disappointing because that’s what they like to do to people. It was a bad day all around, and it was a good thing they had a bye the week after. They needed it, and got refocused. It was a bad loss, sure, but these Bulldogs didn’t let it bother them.

7. How they ran through three ranked teams in a row to win SEC East

After that bye week, Georgia ran through ranked teams Florida, Kentucky and Auburn with three easy wins, clinching the SEC East title for the second year in a row. They did so in impressive fashion, winning those three games by 17 points or more. The loss was certainly a wake-up call, which is fair, but the response was exceptional.

8. How Mecole Hardman became a big-play scoring machine

Mecole Hardman became that guy this season.  He didn’t score a long touchdown every time he touched the ball, but it sure felt like it. He did it again Saturday, when he got open and caught a 44-yard TD pass from Jake Fromm. Five of his six touchdowns were 42 yards or longer this season, and he’s still also a scary threat in the return game.

9. Elijah Holyfield makes a name for himself

Elijah Holyfield came to Georgia known more as the son of former boxing heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, but he’s made a name for himself this year as a premier running back. He’s provided a great 1-2 punch with D’Andre Swift, and those two have been just as good as legends Nick Chubb and Sony Michel were last year.

10. How they handled all these high expectations

Georgia was supposed to win the SEC East and dominate everyone, and that’s a lot to put on a team. But they’ve handled all that very well, and they’re in position now to do even more with the conference title game ahead, and god things beyond that. It’s a special team.

Tom Brew

Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist and author who is covering SEC football for Saturday Down South.