{"id":1046,"date":"2026-09-18T07:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/dawg-sports-report-2026-09-18\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T07:00:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T11:00:05","slug":"dawg-sports-report-2026-09-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/dawg-sports-report-2026-09-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Seventy-Four Seats on the Plane"},"content":{"rendered":"

GEORGIA MONEYBALL \u2014 Friday, September 18, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n

The SEC allows Georgia just 74 men for the trip to Fayetteville, and the arithmetic gets interesting at outside linebacker.<\/strong><\/p>\n

ALBANY, GA \u2014 \u00b7 By the RFA Sports Desk<\/small><\/p>\n

The Southeastern Conference, which never met a rule it couldn't invoice, allows Georgia exactly 74 men on the plane to Fayetteville this weekend. DawgNation spent the week doing the arithmetic, and its projections have freshmen Valdin Sone, Kaiden Prothro and PJ Dean making the trip while quarterback Hezekiah Millender stays home in Athens with the television remote. Seventy-four sounds like plenty of football players until you start counting, which is what this column is for.<\/p>\n

The counting gets grim at outside linebacker, a room DawgNation describes as dangerously thin after the injuries to Chase Linton and Amaris Williams. The league's first availability report of Arkansas week, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, rules out three Georgia defenders \u2014 Linton, Tyriq Green, and now defensive back Justice Fitzpatrick, the newest name on the list. Arkansas, for its part, listed three players total, with tight end Maddox Lassiter the only Razorback gone for good. When the visitors have the longer injury column, the SEC opener is reminding you it keeps score in bodies as well as points.<\/p>\n

\n

Seventy-four sounds like plenty of football players until you start counting.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What Georgia does bring is a quarterback who has apparently misplaced the incompletion. Buck Belue, who played the position in Athens when the shoulder pads were smaller, predicted a comfortable Bulldogs win this week, and his evidence is difficult to argue with: Gunner Stockton has completed 28 of 32 passes for 436 yards and eight touchdowns, Georgia has yet to punt with him under center this season, and the Bulldogs lead the nation in scoring at 66.5 points a game. A man could get used to that. A man should not, but he could.<\/p>\n

Arkansas is responding to all of this the way a fellow responds to a train schedule, which is to say by standing there. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports the Razorbacks released a Week 3 depth chart with not a single change through two games, keeping junior KJ Jackson at quarterback for the 11-in-the-morning local kickoff \u2014 this from a 1-and-1 team coming off a 43-to-10 whipping at Utah. There is either great confidence in standing pat or great resignation, and from this distance it is hard to tell the difference.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the rest of the country rearranged its furniture. Texas trailed Ohio State 23 to 3 after three quarters and then scored 21 unanswered, winning 24 to 23 on Hollywood Smothers' one-yard plunge with 25 seconds left \u2014 the largest fourth-quarter comeback ever to beat a No. 1 team, the record keepers at Sportradar say, and it made the Longhorns the new No. 1. Georgia sits at No. 2, which is precisely where a sensible team wants to live in September: close enough to smell the top, far enough back that nobody is aiming at you yet.<\/p>\n

The Notebook<\/h3>\n
    \n
  • UPSET OF THE WEEKEND:<\/strong> Oklahoma State, a 24.5-point underdog fresh off a loss to Tulsa, beat sixth-ranked Oregon 39 to 31 \u2014 the first team in the sport's top division ever to snap a ten-game losing streak against a top-ten opponent.<\/li>\n
  • THE HONEST GAME:<\/strong> The Bayou Bengals visit the Oxford Rebel Roosters on Saturday night with LSU favored by 3. The desk calls it a coin flip and declines to insult your intelligence further.<\/li>\n
  • SATURDAY, NOON EASTERN:<\/strong> The Red Clay Hounds at the Hog Callers, Georgia favored by 24 and a half. The desk stamps it a lock.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Written in the tradition of Lewis Grizzard, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1946\u20131994.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Hear the desk read tonights report on Radio Free Albany, WPFQ 96.7.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    GEORGIA MONEYBALL \u2014 Friday, September 18, 2026 The SEC allows Georgia just 74 men for the trip to Fayetteville, and the arithmetic gets interesting at outside linebacker. ALBANY, GA \u2014 \u00b7 By the RFA Sports Desk The Southeastern Conference, which never met a rule it couldn't invoice, allows Georgia exactly 74 men on the plane […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dawg-sports-report","category-georgia-moneyball","category-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}