Five things to know about Georgia, OU’s opponent in the Rose Bowl
NORMAN — No. 2 Oklahoma plays No. 3 Georgia in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 in Pasadena, California, for the right to play for the national title Jan. 8 in Atlanta.
Here are five things Sooners fans should know about Georgia with the game four weeks away:
Quarterback change
The Bulldogs started the season with Jacob Eason running the show after throwing for 2,430 yards and 16 touchdowns as a freshman a year ago.
But Eason injured his left knee early in the Bulldogs’ season-opening win over Appalachian State and was replaced by Jake Fromm.
Though Eason has been well since midway through the season, there was no replacing Fromm after the freshman led the Bulldogs to wins over teams such as Notre Dame and Mississippi State in the weeks following Eason’s injury.
Fromm has thrown for 2,173 yards and 21 touchdowns with just five interceptions.
Familiar faces
Georgia’s offensive line coach is Sam Pittman, who is in his second season of coaching the Bulldogs after three seasons at Arkansas.
Pittman, a Grove native, was the Sooners’ offensive line coach in 1997-98 before moving on to Western Michigan when John Blake was fired.
Earlier this season, former Sooners coach
Bob Stoops visited Athens, Georgia, talking to the Bulldogs.
In the spring, Sooners coach Lincoln Riley hosted several Bulldogs assistants.
“We just kind of generically shot some ideas,” Riley said. “So hopefully I have (given) them some really, really terrible stuff.”
Power running game
The Bulldogs feature two running backs who have combined to rush for more than 2,000 yards in seniors Nick Chubb and Sony Michel.
Chubb has rushed for nearly 4,600 yards and 42 touchdowns during his career, with his best season coming as a freshman in 2014.
Chubb has topped 100 yards rushing five times this season, with the latest coming against Kentucky on Nov. 18 when he rushed for 151.
Georgia is 11th in the country in rushing, averaging 263.5 yards per game.
Oklahoma’s rushing defense is 40th, allowing an average of 144.2 yards.
The Bulldogs have been held under that mark just once — Auburn allowed Georgia just 46 yards rushing in the Tigers’ 40-17 regular-season win over Georgia.
Bucking the trend
Since winning the national championship in 1980 — back when Herschel Walker was running for the Bulldogs — Georgia has gotten to the cusp of greatness plenty of times but could never quite get there.
Georgia went undefeated in 1982 before falling in the Sugar Bowl to Penn State. In 2008, under coach Mark Richt, they started No. 1 before an early season loss to Alabama sent the Bulldogs tumbling outside the top 10. In 2015, they started in the top 10 but lost three of four games in midseason to fall out of the top 25 and leading to Richt’s departure after the season.
This season, Georgia started out at No. 15 and steadily climbed thanks to the early season win at Notre Dame and then won the SEC Championship Game to snap an eightgame winning streak in the game by the SEC West.
The programs have never met
The list of Power Five programs Oklahoma has never played is a small one.
Many of those, though, are Southeastern Conference opponents.
The Rose Bowl will be the first meeting between the storied programs.
The other major conference teams the Sooners have never played: Georgia Tech, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Purdue, Rutgers and South Carolina.