Behind the call: ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky recounts 2019 Gamecocks upset win over UGA
South Carolina’s last trip to Athens, Georgia ended in a 20-17 double-overtime upset win over the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs in 2019. ESPN football analyst Dan Orlovsky was on the call on Oct. 12, 2019 with play-by-play broadcaster Bob Wischusen and sideline reporter Allison Williams.
Orlovsky spoke with The State about his memories of the Gamecocks-Bulldogs 2019 game.
The State: Overall, what stands out to you as key memories when you think back to the game?
DO: I’d say, number one, that was my first time really in an SEC stadium. As a kid from the North that grew up in the North and really lived in the North a lot, I had never really been in an SEC stadium. I just remember walking to the game, and you hear tons of rumors, like ‘Oh, you know, it’s Athens.’ I was like, ‘Yo, it really is just different,’ which was kind of dope going into the game.
Calling that game, I believe it was the year after (Georgia’s) Rose Bowl with Jake (Fromm) and them, so with Georgia, the expectations were just so outrageously high. I remember going into the game and talking with (Wischusen) and being like, ‘Yo, I don’t think this will be a blowout. I just don’t think that this is an awful matchup for South Carolina.’ I was still somewhat new in my analyst group. I just remember going into the game, I didn’t think it would be an upset, but I didn’t think it was gonna be a blowout.
TS: What was it that you saw in the matchup that made you think it would be close?
DO: I thought that South Carolina was super physical. I mean, South Carolina had guys on defense, you know, it’s just not a good match. It was obvious that Georgia wasn’t overly talented on offense. And even though they were young, South Carolina at the quarterback spot, they weren’t going to ask their offense to do that much.
TS: Even though you thought it was going to be closer, when a game is expected to be so lopsided, what happens from an analyst’s perspective when the game took the turn toward an upset?
DO: I think the biggest thing was, South Carolina made it very apparent early on that they felt their two corners, (Jaycee) Horn and (Israel) Mukuamu, were better than the Georgia receivers. They were just going to beat them up and dare Georgia to figure out a way to throw the ball effectively against them, against man coverage. It became very obvious that Georgia’s coaching staff didn’t do anything to help their receivers. When you’ve got receivers, we all want a person, as a football team, that we could just put out there by himself and be like ‘Yo, go be better than the other guy,’ and Georgia didn’t have that. Then as a coaching staff, you have to do things to help those guys, motion, stack, bunches. They did nothing.
I remember being on the call and just harping on it, being like, ‘Georgia’s staff has got to do something to help these receivers.’ They were so young, (George) Pickens was young. I think they had (Dominick) Blaylock at that time that was young, so they were just young and they weren’t doing anything. You were expecting the guys to go win, that was the big thing.
I remember I got to the point, maybe in the third quarter, I was like, ‘Yo, you got to stop throwing at 24,’ which is who Mukuamu was. I was like, I’m just not throwing his way. It was one of those games where he was dominating, and there was no point in even throwing the ball his way. Georgia never adjusted to that, and South Carolina just kind of put their foot down. Obviously, it paid off.
TS: Take me behind the scenes in the broadcast booth. What were the conversations like during commercials?
DO: The reality is, there’s not a ton of great college football games every weekend game-wise. While college football games are awesome because of the pageantry, and you’re on campus, the football game itself, there’s not a ton of great ones. (Wischusen) had been doing college football for like 15 years. You just go into a game hoping to get maybe a half of good football, because so many games become these blowouts.
As you get into the game and it becomes a good game, you start to get energy. You start to have these conversations in commercials, (and) you start to get excited because you’re fortunate to be one of those crews that finally is going to get a good game. Then, you’re getting a game that is going to have tremendous impact nationally because of the upset. We had this energy, there were almost these moments during commercial break looking at each other — and again, this was in my second season calling games, so I was still new — and being like, ‘Is this real? This might happen.’
As every commercial break came, and as the game went on, you got more and more excited of the reality. A gagillion people are going to be watching, and you’re going to have this chance to be on the call of a relatively big upset this year.
As the commercial breaks go and you’re super excited, then it starts to become locking in almost. Everything you’re going to say is going to be super important, and everyone’s gonna be locked in on the things that you’re saying as the analyst. The commercial breaks went from like crazy excitement to almost a finite focus to really be in the moment.
TS: I also wanted to ask you specifically about quarterback play that day. Starting out on the Georgia side with Jake Fromm, what were some of your biggest takeaways as a former quarterback?
DO: I felt like Jake was out there by himself. Jake isn’t a quarterback that, ‘Oh, I can just go make plays.’ He’s really good if you kind of create the play for him. He can knock open the jump shot, so to speak. But you could just tell man, he’s not capable of carrying this football team or overcoming some of the things that they can’t do or won’t do. I think Jake missed some throws, and he wasn’t perfect. But you could tell that the burden that they were asking him to carry was just too much.
TS: Over on the South Carolina side, with Ryan Hilinski’s injury and bringing on Dakereon Joyner dealing with a hamstring injury. What were your thoughts about how that went down?
DO: The Hilinski kid, i believe that was fresh off the offseason where he lost his brother. There’s obviously the emotional aspect of that, watching how tough he was. Then he goes out of the game, and in the moment, you’re like, ‘Well, there’s the game,’ because you think (Joyner) was playing receiver. They were gonna play him at receiver if I’m correct, and then all of a sudden. Again, they weren’t going to ask that offense to do much. And Joyner made some plays, and you could see Hilinski on the sideline being great as a leader and cheering his teammate on. It was impressive that their offense was still capable of doing something and not just giving the game away.
TS: What do you remember about what happened whenever (UGA kicker) Rodrigo Blankenship missed that field goal to send it into triple overtime, and South Carolina had sealed the victory?
DO: Just a little bit of shock and awe. Again, you’re so used to blowouts, you’re like, ‘Holy smokes, it happened.’ The impact it was gonna have on college football, and obviously Georgia and the playoff in the future. Leaving the stadium, the most obvious thing was how ticked off fans were that it actually happened. The Georgia fans did not believe that there should have been any opportunity for something like that to actually happen.
TS: What are your thoughts about this year? We have the largest point spread in the history of the rivalry and it seems very lopsided. Do you have a prediction for the game?
DO: I mean, Georgia’s defense is in the conversation for the best in America. So it’s a tall task for South Carolina, but (Georgia’s) offense also has to get going a little bit more consistently, with who’s gonna play at quarterback. Because their defense is so great, they’ll have a chance. And Georgia turned the ball over so much two years ago, so Georgia should be able to handle this game comfortably for sure.
This story was originally published September 16, 2021 at 10:39 AM with the headline "Behind the call: ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky recounts 2019 Gamecocks upset win over UGA."
