Two Georgia players have earned weekly Southeastern Conference honors following Georgia’s third consecutive win over Florida.
Senior nose Garrison Smith was named the SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week for the second time in his career while sophomore placekicker Marshall Morgan received his third conference honor this season, after being named the SEC Special Teams Player of the Week.
These marked the eighth and ninth SEC honors in eight game weeks for the Bulldogs.
Smith, a 6-3, 299-pound native of Atlanta, recorded a career-high nine tackles, including 2.5 sacks for loss of 12 yards, during Georgia’s 23-20 victory over the Gators. After coming into the game with 1.5 sacks this season and only a single sack during the first three years of his career, Smith is currently third on the team with four sacks.
Smith led a defense that surrendered only a pair of short-field touchdowns (14 yards, 50 yards) and a field goal against Florida. He is third on the team with a total of 44 tackles this season, including six tackles for loss of 27 yards.
A 6-3, 200-pound native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Morgan was a perfect 3 for 3 on field goals over the weekend, including a 49-yarder, and hit both of his PATs. He is the SEC leader in scoring average at 10.2 points/game, which is 12th nationally, and leads the nation at 2.2 field goals/game.
He is 13 for 15 (one of those misses coming from 52 yards) on field goal attempts this year, including a career-long 56-yarder that is tied for the nation’s longest in 2013. In fact, no other kicker in the nation has two of the longest top-10 kicks this year when his other 55-yarder is taken into account. For the year, Morgan is also 22-for-22 on PATs.
Morgan was also named one of 20 semifinalists for the Lou Groza Award on Monday, which is given to the nation’s top place-kicker.
The Bulldogs (5-3, 4-2 SEC) host Appalachian State (2-7, 2-4 SoCon) at Sanford Stadium on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. WSB will televise the first-ever matchup between the two teams.