The Jordan Davis Appreciation Society got a huge boost on Saturday when the big man lunged over the goal line to open the scoring for Georgia in a rout of Charleston Southern.

Davis, the 6-foot-6 and 340-pounder and a dark horse Heisman Trophy candidate, added another line to that resume with a 1-yard run with 9:01 left in the first quarter. The Sanford Stadium crowd loved it about as much as his Senior Day recognition, and he was mobbed by teammates immediately after the score. By the time Georgia tacked on 3 more touchdowns, the rout was on, and the early stumble of Stetson Bennett being intercepted was long forgotten.

Davis was the last Georgia player to enter Sanford in the Dawg Walk, and the emotional scene included him fighting back tears.

Kenny McIntosh scored Georgia’s second TD of the game, as he took a fourth-down swing pass and ran 32 yards into the end zone.

With a G-Day feel between the number of third- and fourth-string players, and the sparse crowd, Georgia ran up the final score to 56-7. But the Bulldogs lost the shutout with 5:40 left in the third quarter thanks to a bizarre play when Georgia intercepted Charleston Southern but Xavian Sorey Jr. fumbled, and Garris Schwarting returned it 65 yards.

Soon after that play, a notable catch came on first down to Dominick Blaylock, who is returning from an ACL injury, who made his first of the year. Blaylock also fielded a punt during the game, which drew supportive applause from the crowd.

Georgia had a balanced rushing attack with 4 players collecting at least 21 yards rushing led by Zamir White’s 4 carries for 83 yards and a score.

But overall, it was a game for Georgia to play a lot of players down the depth chart, and polish certain elements. Bennett finished 8-for-14 passing for 2 touchdowns and an interception. JT Daniels contributed 7-of-12 passing for 73 yards with a TD. Daniels hit his first TD pass in 2 weeks, a 7-yard completion to TE Brock Bowers to give Georgia a 42-0 second-quarter lead with 6:40 remaining in the second quarter. That was Bower’ seventh touchdown of the season, which leads the country.

Following that score, that’s when Georgia opened the flood gates on replacing the starters, as the starters on defense largely went to the sideline, except for safety Latavious Brini and linebacker Robert Beal.

After 3 quarters, Georgia’s defense held Southern to just 1.1 yards per play, and Georgia’s quarterbacks combined for 250 passing yards.

Georgia came into Saturday looking to stay healthy, and play as many backups as possible as the Bulldogs eye the Dec. 4 SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. About the only thing noteworthy to be settled on Saturday was Georgia’s eye-popping defensive numbers. That second-half touchdown by the Buccaneers dented those goals after Georgia came in leading the nation in scoring defense (7.8), and had outscored opponents 323-36 in the first 3 quarters. But a late fourth-down stand with about 4 minutes remaining helped.

With SEC play in the rearview mirror, and the first undefeated regular season mark since 1982, the Bulldogs could measure themselves against Charleston Southern RB Daniel Oscar, who had a career-high 101 yards rushing with a touchdown in last week’s 32-24 overtime win at Gardner-Webb. Oscar was held to 7 carries for 21 yards, and he had one catch for 8 yards.

Charleston Southern came in with 4 players who had 30 or more catches, led by WRs Geoffrey Wall (62) and Cayden Jordan (52). Wall and Jordan combined for 2 catches for 7 yards.

Georgia now turns its attention to next week getting its fourth straight win over Georgia Tech next week on The Flats, as Clean Old-Fashioned Hate Week begins.