Georgia showed off a little of what's waiting for new coach Kirby Smart in a 24-17 win over Penn State on Saturday in the TaxSlayer Bowl at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Fla.
Freshman wide receiver Terry Godwin threw a touchdown pass on a trick play and caught a touchdown pass from quarterback Greyson Lambert, helping Georgia jump out to a 24-3 lead in the third quarter.
Penn State (7-6) lost starting quarterback Christian Hackenberg to a shoulder injury early in the second quarter but still managed to mount a rally behind redshirt freshman Trace McSorley.
McSorley threw a pair of touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to make things interesting. McSorley hit wide receiver DaeSean Hamilton on a 20-yard touchdown that cut the Bulldogs' lead to 24-17 with six minutes to play.
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Georgia (10-3) answered with a long, time-consuming drive down to the Penn State 25-yard line. Facing a fourth-and-2 and with starting kicker Marshall Morgan out with an injury, Georgia interim coach Bryan McClendon elected to go for it. Penn State came up with the stop, giving the ball back to McSorley with no timeouts.
McSorley got the Nittany Lions in position for a Hail Mary, but the pass was batted down in the end zone, sealing the win for the Bulldogs.
"You can't come out and start slow the way we did and think you're going to beat that type of opponent in a bowl game," Penn State coach James Franklin said. "That's not just offense. I think it's easy obviously to sit here and say offensively we started slow. But I really feel defensively that was the case, and special teams as well."
Smart was in attendance at EverBank Field and saw his future team pull out a win, despite being outgained 401-327. Georgia running back Sony Michel rushed for 85 yards and a touchdown, and senior wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell caught five passes for 114 yards and a touchdown from Godwin on the trick play.
"If you would have seen how he threw it this past Thursday, you would have been scolding me why we said to call it," McClendon joked. "No, it was something we knew Terry was good at and we felt he could execute."
The win caps an emotional two months for the Bulldogs, who saw their season unravel in a blowout loss to Alabama and Smart in October. Georgia lost to Tennessee the following week and saw star running back Nick Chubb suffer a season-ending injury.
Longtime coach Mark Richt was dismissed after the regular season and replaced by Smart, who is still maintaining his defensive coordinator duties with Alabama during the Crimson Tide's prep for the national championship game.
"I'll say this: It definitely is bittersweet," said McClendon, who will be joining Will Muschamp's staff at South Carolina. "This business is about people and relationships; that's what it's made up of. You build relationships with so many people. I mean, I've spent more time with Terry Godwin than I have with my own kids throughout the season. That's the God's honest truth."
McSorley completed 14 of 27 passes for 142 yards with two touchdowns and gave Penn State fans a glimpse of the post-Hackenberg era.
A highly touted recruit out of high school and an NFL prospect, Hackenberg injured his right throwing shoulder after being tackled on a scramble early in the second quarter with Penn State trailing 10-0. He stayed in the game for a few plays, before being taken back to the locker room. After the game, the junior announced that he will enter the NFL draft.
"I don't think it's anything really serious," Franklin said of Hackenberg's injury. "He came down on a shoulder joint and sprained his shoulder joint. As a quarterback, when you do that to that joint, it's painful. You lose strength. He just fell on it funny. He was able to go. He actually made some plays there. He was going to try to finish that drive. Once he went inside, the trainers, doctors, didn't feel like he was going to be able to go well enough to continue playing. He wouldn't have the strength in that arm."
Penn State weathered through another up-and-down season to reach a bowl game for the second straight year under Franklin. The Nittany Lions rebounded from an opening upset loss to Temple to win five in a row but were not competitive against the Big Ten's top teams: Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State.
NOTES: Penn State junior QB Christian Hackenberg declared for the NFL draft after the game. ... Georgia fired longtime coach Mark Richt at the end of the regular season and hired Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart to take over as coach. Richt is now the coach at Miami. Smart is still coaching Alabama as the Crimson Tide prepare for the national championship game against Clemson, but he did make it down to Jacksonville for Saturday's game. ... NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove his racecar onto the field to deliver the coin for the opening coin flip. ... Georgia and Penn State entered the TaxSlayer.com Bowl with 28 bowl wins each. That was tied with Oklahoma for third most in the nation.
