Hutson Mason QB held a few state passing records in Georgia but wasn't highly recruited because his offense at Lassiter High School was a HUNH and UGA only offered him at the last minute. There were questions about his long ball.
At UGA, he's always been the guy in the headset between Murray and the booth. He is a 5th year senior who knows the offense inside and out. He's been the official backup the whole time he's been here, and repping with the first team at every practice. He's had some cleanup duty in garbage time over the years, but just got his first start in the last game of the season vs instate rival Georgia Tech (Murray tore ACL the week before).
Down 20-0, he led the Dawgs back into the game to win in 2nd overtime.
The difference between Mason and Murray is that Mason plays faster. Murray had the maturity and experience to let the plays develop, checking the long ball first before checking through the rest of the routes and reading the coverage. Murray was also an effective scrambler. Mason likes to get rid of the ball in a hurry. He wants to dink and dunk you all the way down the field. An offensive lineman told the newspaper recently they always have to tell him to slow down in practice because he's now now now. One of his weaknesses is the play-action run. As soon as he hands the ball off and takes two steps, he stops to turn around and watch the play and doesn't follow through with the fake. I assure you they are working on that in the film room because it defeats the whole purpose of the play action run. His critics say he doesn't have the long ball, but he through for several long completions in that game. One game doesn't make or break a quarterback, so only time will tell if he'll be successful against Nebraska, and looking forward to next year, the SEC.
Georgia's defense is a base 3-4 but plays in nickel most of the time. We only returned 3 starters from last year's defense.
Garrison Smith (DE),
Amarlo Herrera (ILB),
Damien Swann (DB).
The two players you'll see most on the
defensive line are
Garrison Smith and Ray Drew. They all rotate but Smith and Drew are almost always in there. The difference is
new DL coach Chris Wilson (former Miss St DC). Instead of trying to put together a defensive line based on prototypes, he put the 3 most disruptive guys up on the line as the starters. Garrison Smith is barely 300 but is the nose guard in a 3-4 in the SEC, if that gives you any indication of the new DL philosophy. It's been working. The whole front 7 of the defense are great. UGA is in the top 5 in the sec in sacks, hurries, rush yards against, and pass yards against (no thanks to our secondary, but I don't want to get ahead of myself).
Georgia's linebackers are all stout.
Ramik Wilson (ILB) leads the SEC in tackles and was named 1st team All SEC this week.
Leonard Floyd (OLB, true freshman) was named to the SEC All Freshman team and leads the team in sacks.
Jordan Jenkins (OLB) was the 5 star recruit from 2 years ago that was supposed to replace Jarvis Jones, but you don't simply replace Jarvis Jones. Jordan Jenkins has played well at weak side OLB although the stats don't show it. Unlike most weak side ends who go after the qb on every play, JJ actually contains his edge.
Georgia's secondary is a dumpster fire. That's all I have to say about that.
Here's a pic of
Leonard Floyd and Zach Mettenberger being introduced to each other.