GEORGIA

Game starts at 7:45 p.m., not after halftime

Georgia is 3-0, but it hasn't put together a great first half. At halftime the Dawgs led Buffalo 24-20, trailed Missouri 10-9, and was up 28-14 on Florida Atlantic.I'll handle the math for you. UGA has outscored its opponents 61-40, while outgaining them 703-606. Thats alrightish (yeah I know, that's not a word).  

But in the second half its total domination. Scoreboard: 81-23.  Total yardage: 850-400.

Hopefully Mark Richt, Todd Grantham and Mike Bobo haven't used up their best halftime speeches as their team starts seven straight SEC games. 

Special teams haven't...stunk

As we know Georgia's special teams were not very good last year, and really started to show their slip in the Vanderbilt game. The Dawgs gave up a 96 yard kick return for a touchdown and had a punt blocked with seven seconds left that almost cost them the game.

This year, things have been much improved.

Georgia's kick coverage team has held returners to an average 19.0 yards per return, down fouryards  from last year. The Bulldogs themselves are averaging 24.8 yards per return. Meanwhile, the punt coverage team has allowed 9.2 yards per return (14.9 last year). UGA returners are at 8.8.

Not just a fill in

Quick, who are Georgia's top two tacklers this season?

Shawn Williams you say? Good guess. He's first with 25.

But did you have Amarlo Herrera second with 22? Yeah I didn't either, and I'm the statistician.

The 6-foot-2 245 pound sophomore was just an understudy for the suspended Alec Ogletree. He had 37 stops in his freshman year, but now he's making a real push to stay in the lineup. Herrera led the Dawgs with 10 tackles against Missouri and interception for a touchdown last week.   

VANDERBILT

Whose playing QB Vol. 2

Last year Georgia saw four different Vanderbilt players throw passes. They faced two actual quarterbacks and neither was very memorable.Larry Smith was 5-for-10 for 24 yards, while Aaron Rogers little brother Jordan was 4-for-19 for 47 yards (ouch). But  he did run for 88 yards.

This year Rogers is still playing, but it looks like has lost his job to Wyoming transfer Austyn Carta-Samuels (one quarterback, two names). And yes I did say Carta-Samuels used to play football in Wyoming. He was 13 of 20 for 195 in the 58-0 blowout of Presbyterian last week.  Carta-Samuels threw for 3,655 yards and ran for 758 yards in his two years as a starter with the Cowboys.

Zac Stacy - A real football player

He's short (5-foot-9, 210 pounds) but Sr. RB Zac Stacy is a football player. 

Stacy set the single-season school rushing record with 1,193 yards (not exactly Herschel numbers, but hey, good for him) and he's now third on the all-time list with 2,260 yards. He's rushed for 285 yards this season, with 7.6 yards per carry.

He had 103 yards against the Dawgs last year.

Almost famous

Vanderbilt isn't rolling over in the SEC anymore (that honor is now left for Kentucky).

The Commodores haven't beaten a ranked opponent since 2008, but they are getting close. Vandy has had a chance to win their last six conference games dating back to last season. Vanderbilt lost to UGA, Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida and South Carolina by an average of 4.6 points.  That includes the 17-13 to the top 10 Gamecocks to start the season.

This year the defense is first in the SEC conference in passing defense (100.7 ypg) and pass defense efficiency. Both statistics also place the unit among the NCAA's top five teams.