The No. 12 Bulldogs committed themselves fully to the running game and had two backs surpass 100 yards for the first time since 1992 as they beat the Commodores 33-3. A crowd of 92,746 watched the victory on a near perfect homecoming day in Sanford Stadium.
Freshmen tailbacks Danny Ware and Thomas Brown led the way with 127 yards and 122 yards, respectively. It was not just a Bulldog milestone but also only the second time that Coach Mark Richt can remember it happening in his career, Richt said.
“Coach Richt told us if we came out and proved we could run the ball, we’d keep running it,” Brown said. “And we did that.”
The Bulldogs (5-1, 3-1 SEC) did a solid job of bouncing back from last week’s disappointing loss to Tennessee and then went home hoping Ole Miss could upset the Volunteers in a late game Saturday night. Georgia returns to action on Saturday at Arkansas.
They’ll head west a team transformed. After watching disappointing passing performances in four of his team’s first five games, Richt said he decided, “if you get in a position where you have to drop back and throw the ball, you have to be better at it than we are right now.”
“I felt like we needed to run the ball well,” he said. “We’ll always try to run some and pass some, but I had a little more of an edge to run the ball today.”
With two first-time starters on one side of their offensive line, the Bulldogs rushed for 273 yards overall, their highest total of the season.
“We just wanted to prove to everybody we can grind it out and run the ball,” guard Max Jean-Gilles said.
They proved that early, rushing for 100 yards in the first quarter while they built a 14-0 lead the Commodores (1-5, 1-3) would never threaten.
“We missed several assignments on defense, and they kept pounding the ball at us,” said Vanderbilt linebacker Moses Osemwegie.
Last season, Georgia didn’t have a player rush for more than 100 yards in any game. Saturday was the third 100-yard effort of the season for Ware. The last time two Bulldogs surpassed 100 was 1992 when Garrison Hearst and Mack Strong did it.
“We just went to the old mix-and-match, run the ball, pass the ball, run the ball, pass the ball,” Ware said. “It keeps the defense off balance.”
Georgia ran the ball 47 times and passed it 26 times. That’s the biggest disparity it has had this season except for the LSU game, another big win, when it ran the ball 23 more times than it passed it.
“We were able to stay out of third-and-long, and that’s the key to football,” said quarterback David Greene, who was 14 of 21 for 191 yards and two touchdowns and moved to fifth all-time in the SEC in career passing yards.
The Bulldogs had 26 first downs, 13 on runs and 13 on passes. They converted 8 of 12 third downs.
They also spread the ball around. Six players carried the ball, and nine caught passes. Reggie Brown led all receivers with four catches for 86 yards, including his fifth touchdown of the season.
“When everybody gets their hands on the football, it gets everybody’s confidence up,” said backup quarterback D.J. Shockley, who was 4 of 5 for 63 yards and one interception.
The Bulldogs had a season-high 527 yards overall and held Vanderbilt to 187. The Commodores’ three points are the fewest Georgia has allowed to an SEC opponent since the 2002 SEC Championship Game.
“Obviously, we had a hard time matching up with them today,” Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson said.