Georgia Twitch: Gotta hope Ole Miss does better than our Zach Berry
No. 16 Ole Miss (7-2, 3-2 SEC) welcomes No. 3 Georgia (7-1, 5-1) to Oxford Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC.
The Rebel 'Game of Games' is officially here. For all the marbles and to keep College Football Playoff hopes alive. The all-important, ceiling-shattering potential win Ole Miss fans were robbed off in 2003 against LSU.
Zach Berry, our lead recruiting analyst here at the Ole Miss Spirit ( OMSpirit.com ), couldn't wait. Gotta hope the Rebels are in for better, though, 'cause he couldn't tame Carson Beck and the Dawgs.
Georgia is 47-3 over its last 50 games and hasn't lost more than once in a season since 2020. The Bulldogs are averaging just over 430 yards per game of offense. Beck accounts for nearly 300 (299) through the air.
However, he's also thrown multiple interceptions in four out of his last five.
"I see a guy that's extremely, first-round talented," fifth-year Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin said of Beck . "He's had a couple interceptions here as of late, which a lot of great quarterbacks do. Some, I think, weren't even his fault, and I saw him play an awesome game a year ago against us.
"He's one of the best in the country and definitely one of the most talented."
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Beck sits in the Top 25 nationally in passing yards (2,302), passing touchdowns (17) and completions per game (23.75).Four Bulldog receivers have three or more receiving touchdowns on the year. Arian Smith leads Georgia with 503 yards on his 31 catches. Florida transfer running back Trevor Etienne and true freshman Nate Frazier average 65 and 41 yards rushing per game, respectively.
The Bulldog defense is No. 12 in FBS, allowing just 295.3 yards each game out. Georgia has also limited opponents to a lowly 28 percent third-down conversion rate, the sixth-best mark nationally. Malaki Starks is the Georgia leader in tackles (43).
Linebacker Jalon Walker has terrorized offenses with a team-leading 4.5 sacks.
"(Walker) has such an unusual size-speed ratio, to be so long and heavy and run so well," Kiffin said. "I feel like, when you watch them, you forget you're not playing Alabama from years ago. They have so much length and look so great at every position. They've really got no small guys, and Kirby (Smart) is building it just like coach (Nick) Saban built Alabama — with NFL players all-around.
"We actually went from a defensive, install cut-up of Georgia to an NFL team. I won't say which team. I said, 'Pause the film.' Georgia's 11 actually looked better than this starting 11 on this NFL defense."
