Ryan Puglisi is expected to keep getting the lion’s share of the backup quarterback snaps when Georgia faces Western Kentucky, a game in which the Bulldogs are a 40.5-point favorite and could again turn to reserves early. The question is less whether Georgia will have the chance to play backups than which quarterback gets the biggest slice of it.
That question is drawing interest now because Georgia was favored by at least 40 points in back-to-back games for the first time since Ball State and Tennessee-Martin opened the 2023 season. In the season opener against Tennessee State, Georgia won 63-3 and four Georgia quarterbacks got on the field, giving Kirby Smart another look at how his reserve quarterbacks handle live snaps when the game is already in hand.
Smart said he was pleased those quarterbacks got to play in front of the home crowd after that 63-3 win. He said it was good for them and their families, and for the work they put in every day. He also made clear that the game reps are not the same thing as practice reps, even if the backup quarterbacks get the same work every day during the week.
That is the push and pull in this matchup. Georgia’s coaches can evaluate the backups every day in practice, but Smart still wants to see them play in front of the home crowd and get a reward for the grind. He said he could tell each quarterback something he did wrong, and that they probably could say the same thing back, then added that the staff will watch the tape, grow those players and keep working them.
Smart also framed the responsibility in human terms, saying the hardest job is promising families and kids that Georgia will not put a player on a shelf and keep him from growing. That is why Puglisi matters here: if Georgia gets to the same kind of late-game runway again, he is the quarterback most likely to be asked to take the bulk of the No. 2 snaps.
The setup should also be a little easier on the bodies involved. Georgia opened the season in 101-degree temperatures, and Saturday is expected to be roughly 20 degrees cooler when Western Kentucky comes to Sanford Stadium. If the Bulldogs build another early lead, the next answer readers are waiting on is whether Puglisi keeps the job that comes with it.
