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Following a dominant win over Clemson in its season opener, No. 1 Georgia will turn its attention to a Tennessee Tech team that nearly scored one of Week 1’s biggest upsets.

The Golden Eagles, a member of the Big South-OVC Football Association at the FCS level, had Middle Tennessee on the ropes last Saturday, falling 32-25 on a touchdown with 16 seconds to play.

Had Tennessee Tech held on, it would have marked the lone FCS win over an FBS opponent on Saturday.

Fresh off his team’s 34-3 victory over then-No. 14 Clemson in Atlanta last Saturday, Georgia coach Kirby Smart won’t allow his players to sleepwalk into Saturday’s home opener against the Golden Eagles.

“Excited to be here, excited to get moved on to pursue getting better. We open with Tennessee Tech practice today, and we’ll start attacking these guys,” Smart said Monday. “They played a really hard-fought game with Middle Tennessee the other night. They had a great comeback, and I got a lot of respect for the way they played in that game, for sure. Our guys will start getting prepared for them today.”

After a slow start, Georgia owned the second half, outscoring the Tigers 28-3 after halftime. The defense allowed just 188 total yards, while Carson Beck had an efficient start to his senior season, finishing 23-of-33 passing for 278 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Aiming for their 41st consecutive regular-season win, Georgia and Smart believe they have a ways to go following Week 1.

“I can’t pick one thing on improvement,” Smart said. “There are so many things that we’ve got to do better. There’s just a lot there that we want to improve on, and some of what you’re doing is dictated by who you play. People just think it’s a stat game. It’s not a stat game. It’s who you’re lining up across from and how good that football player is because that does dictate things, the matchups.”

In Tennessee Tech’s upset bid, former Old Dominion head coach Bobby Wilder made his debut on the Golden Eagles’ sideline. Jordyn Potts threw for 249 yards and three touchdowns and will be a player Wilder leans on through his first season.

“(Jordyn) is a very dynamic player,” Wilder said. “He’s got the ability to throw from the pocket. We’ll do more with him in movement because he runs so well. He’s such a good athlete, it’s like having a running back at the quarterback position.”

A win against Middle Tennessee would’ve given the program its third win over an FBS/I-A school as the Golden Eagles beat Western Carolina in 1978 and 1980 when the Catamounts were an NCAA Division I-A program.

Georgia, which hasn’t lost at home since a 20-17 defeat to South Carolina in October 2019, will host Tennessee Tech for the third time. The Bulldogs have won the previous two meetings, including 38-0 in 2009.

–Field Level Media