Five things to know for Georgia football vs. UT Martin & a prediction

Georgia football opens its season Saturday with what had looked like a tune-up game before a road test at Oklahoma.

That was before the Sooners made plans to join the SEC and the week two game was scrapped.

So now UT Martin is just the other team on the bill for the two-time reigning national champion Bulldogs as they begin a slow ramp up that includes Ball State.

“We want to go out in a great rhythm and start fast and dominate and play well,” coach Kirby Smart said

Here are five things to know about the Bulldogs against their FCS opponent:

Carson Beck era begins for Georgia football

Quarterback Carson Beck has taken snaps in six games in Sanford Stadium during his three seasons.

This will be entirely different.

The fourth-year junior from Jacksonville is now QB1.

“Carson has had a lot of reps and a lot of work, but it just hasn't all been game reps,” Smart said. “He's had a huge mass of reps against good defenses, against really good defense in ours.”

Expect Brock Vandagriff to see game action and if things go as many expect, Gunner Stockton could as well.

“I definitely believe that Carson has the capabilities to keep this offense going,” wide receiver Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint said

Javon Bullard at a new spot for Georgia Bulldogs

The last time we saw Javon Bullard in real games (not G-Day), he was scooping up defensive MVP awards in the Peach Bowl and national championship game.

That came at the Star nickelback position. Now the junior has slid back to safety.

“You move back deeper on the defense, the angles start to change,” Bullard said. “You have to slow yourself down sometimes.”

Bullard said his conditioning is now more important than ever because “you’re the last line of defense.”

Smart said Georgia recruited the 5-foot-11, 195-pound Bullard as a safety, the position he played at Baldwin High in Milledgeville.

“He's going somewhere he's played before,” said Smart.

Kirby Smart wants UGA's offensive line to live up to hype

Bulldogs defensive lineman Warren Brinson has gushed about what’s been viewed as one of the best offensive lines the last two years, but it hasn’t won the Joe Moore Award for nation’s top line.

“Ooh, my gosh,” Brinson said. “They are nasty, they are amazing. … That’s the best offensive line, the best two offensive lines in the country. Our 1s and 2s. They give it to us every day.”

Four of the five Georgia starters made the coaches presason all-SEC team.

“Just getting told you're this or that doesn't make you that,” Smart said.

Right tackle Amarius Mims, right guard Tate Ratledge and center Sedrick Van Pran Granger were preseason first team and left guard Xavier Truss was second team.

Redshirt freshman Earnest Greene, a 6-foot-4, 330-pound redshirt freshman, could start at left tackle.

Dominic Lovett an impact addition to Georgia football WR corps

Dominic Lovett will make his Georgia debut Saturday.

He’s one of three scholarship transfers this offseason and two remaining.

Cornerback Smoke Bouie and Georgia parted ways this summer. Mississippi State transfer wide receiver Rara Thomas, who had a January arrest for battery/family violence, hasn’t created as much buzz on the practice field.

Lovett had 56 catches for 846 yards and three touchdowns last year when he was Missouri’s leading receiver.

“I feel like I’m just another weapon added to an offense that already has good weapons,” Lovett said.

UT Martin with a daunting opening game task against Georgia Bulldogs

While UT Martin coach Jason Simpson prepared his team for a daunting opening game, he also kept close tabs on a quarterback competition at another powerhouse SEC program.

His son Ty Simpson was locked in a battle for the starting job at Alabama where Jalen Milroe is considered the favorite to start. They spoke sometimes multiple times a day.

“I’m a Dad first, whether my daughter playing high school basketball or my youngest son playing eighth grade middle school football,” he said

Georgia’s payout to UT Martin is $500,000 for a game that isn’t expected to be close on the scoreboard.

“You go and compete,” said Simpson, in his 17 season as Skyhawks coach. “The scoreboard’s unforgiving. It doesn’t say ‘This is a two-time national championship team and this is an OVC team.’”

UT Martin is the back-to-back Ohio Valley Conference champions. It is coming off a 7-4 season.

“A lot of their stats within their conference look very similar to ours in terms of being balanced, really good on offense and on defense,” Smart said.

Georgia football vs. UT Martin prediction

Georgia 70, UT Martin 3

Let's see, Georgia beat TCU 65-7 in the highest stakes game the last time it played. UT Martin is 1-26 against FBS opponents. Georgia won 66-0 over Troy in Mike Bobo's last season as Bulldogs offensive coordinator in 2014. Look for Carson Beck to have a big day.