It’s a Saturday morning in the middle of autumn. While heads continue to rest in the West Coast, families in Georgia have been up since the crack of dawn. Plans made in the middle of the week are finally coming together. Some are preparing to drive across the state to unite with their relatives, while others are firing up the grill in preparation for those tailgate guests to arrive. It’s still hours before kickoff, when the party will move inside to gather around the television screen. And, those courageous enough to embark on the journey to Sanford Stadium, in Athens, Ga., will be met with a roaring sea of black and red known for tormenting its opponents.
The Georgia Bulldogs are playing football.
Growing up in this environment, fond memories of football, quality time with family and good food are cultivated.
Just ask Bradyn Swinson, Jamal Hill and Noah Whittington. From an early age, they admired the young men who took the field in Sanford Stadium. They aspired to fill those shoes and perform in front of their friends, families and Bulldogs’ fans.
On Saturday, that dream will come to fruition. Yet, it’s not in the form they once imagined. Instead, when the No. 11 Oregon Ducks open its season against the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs, in the neutral site of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Swinson, Hill and Whittington will be entering enemy territory.
For most of the Ducks’ team, the game represents an early-season test, in which they can gauge how they stack up against the defending national champions.
However, for junior defensive end Swinson, junior defensive back Hill, sophomore transfer running back Whittington, and the Ducks’ head coach, Dan Lanning, the 2022 season opener has been boldly circled on their calendars since arriving at Oregon.
“We are ready to play,” Swinson said. “We got the talent to meet up anywhere, but for me, personally, I can’t wait to get back to UGA, that’s a homecoming game for me.”
Throughout the recruiting process, Whittington and Swinson received similar treatment — the Bulldogs didn’t pursue their services. Hill, on the other hand, was heavily sought out by Georgia, but chose Oregon instead. Lanning moved on from his position as the Georgia defensive coordinator after helping them to win a national championship in 2021.
Come Sept. 3, each will enter the Mercedes-Benz Stadium with something to prove to the opposing staff and players.
Lanning’s pursuit for a head coaching job started 11 years ago, when the former University of Pittsburgh head coach Keith Patterson offered him a quality control job of $800 a month.
The money didn’t matter. Lanning remained dedicated to his aspirations and it showed in his work. Four years later, he found himself as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Alabama. There, he met Kirby Smart — Alabama’s defensive coordinator in the middle of an eight-year tenure. In 2015, the two helped the Crimson Tide win a national championship. Following the season, Smart got hired as the head coach at the University of Georgia. Two years into his reign, he hired Lanning.
Lanning took post in Smart’s old occupation, defensive coordinator. In 2021, he administered a stifling defense. One that led the country by holding opponents to 10.2 points per game (4.6 less than any other team), as the Bulldogs captured their first national championship since 1980.
“He was really consistent in his effort,” Smart said of Lanning. “He tried to go above and beyond. It’s always good when you give someone a job and they do it to the fullest extent.”
It was amid that title run last fall when Oregon came calling, interested in what Lanning could do with its job. The Ducks head coach Mario Cristobal had just decided to leave for the University of Miami. While winning more championships alongside his friend at Georgia and the prospects of continuing that legacy were enticing, the Ducks dangled Lanning’s dream in front of him. A head coaching position. A chance to pave his own path. He couldn’t resist.
Eight months after taking the job, he’ll have a chance to justify that decision.
“What an honor to get a chance to go against some of these guys that I know really intimately,” Lanning said, on The #1 Ranked Show. “Coach Smart’s been really good to me, so has that program. It’s going to be fun to see where we’re at early.”
As their former coach, Lanning has an outlook on the game against the Bulldogs different from his players, who have been looking forward to this matchup. But there’s nobody who’s anticipated the Ducks opening game for as long as Jamal Hill has. In fact, when Hill was deciding where to play collegiate football, his mother, Tammie, believed he would choose either Georgia or the University of Auburn. Ultimately, the idea of facing off against the Bulldogs outweighed suiting up for them.
“When I was getting recruited, I didn’t know if I wanted to go that far for school,” Hill said. “But coach Cristobal said, ‘Well, if you give me four years, you’ll get to have a homecoming game.’”
That sealed the deal.
Entering his junior year and fourth year playing football for the Ducks, Hill has grown into a more vocal role. As a defensive back, he sees the whole field in front of him and his voice helps to guide his teammates to be in the best position.
That will be advantageous for the Ducks against Georgia, as Hill’s been preparing for this moment since committing to Oregon. He’ll have no problem adjusting to the raucous crowd he was once a part of.
“I’m going to look at it like another Tuesday practice,” Hill said. “I feel like I’m not going to take in the whole scenery of the game until after the game, but of course I’m going to be excited.”
On Saturday, Hill will go toe to toe against a number of familiar faces, ready to prove that the four year wait to face them was time well-spent.
His offensive counterpart, Noah Whittington, is one of the only Ducks with playing experience inside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Prior to the Ducks’ game against Georgia, the only way to compete inside the dome, other than playing for the Atlanta Falcons, was the high school state championship game.
In both 2017 and 2018, Whittington and the Peach County Trojans came within one score of winning the state championship. Two losses that continue to leave a sour taste in Trojans’ head coach, Chad Campbell’s, mouth — especially since in 2017, he felt he got robbed due to a controversial call by the game’s officials.
At Peach County, Whittington used his dynamic agility and speed to alternate between running back and slot receiver. In his senior year, the Trojans faced the Calhoun Yellow Jackets in the second round of the playoffs — the team who beat them in the state championship his sophomore year. That time around, Whittington dropped 280 yards, lining up as the wildcat quarterback for much of the game, Campbell said, as the Trojans won 35-0.
Time and time again, he performed in the face of Georgia’s football fans, yet, despite Campbell’s persuasive efforts, he went unnoticed to the university’s eyes.
“I always told people, ‘Don’t mess around, this is a special one right here,’” Campbell said. “That’s why I want him to light it up against them.”
Whittington’s collegiate career began at the University of Western Kentucky, but after transferring to Oregon in the summer he’ll have a chance to avenge those previous losses in Atlanta, against a university that glossed over his abilities.
Swinson’s recruiting process was met with a comparable approach to Whittington. His hometown college wanted to go in another direction.
Growing up in Douglasville, Ga., Swinson and his family would gather around their television screen to cheer on the Bulldogs. One week, however, his father, Bryant, suggested they drive to Sanford Stadium to watch the Bulldogs compete in person.
A tradition was started.
As Swinson and his family entered the Stadium, his affinity for Bulldogs’ football transformed into love. The University of Georgia became his dream school. As his playing career progressed, he chased that goal, attending football camps at Georgia, training with his older brother, Brandon, and asking his mom, Kelli, if she could send his film to Mark Richt, the Bulldogs’ head coach at the time.
In high school, Division I teams were inspired by his determination. However, the Bulldogs — who are known for employing sizeable defensive lineman to stuff the run game — saw Swinson as an in-betweener, Kelli said. They were unsure if he would be an interior defensive lineman or an edge rusher.
He held out hope and waited, but Georgia barely gave him a look.
“As a kid, you have that dream school, but when you get older you kind of realize everything isn’t what you thought it was,” his brother, Brandon, said. “It stings a little bit. At the end of the day it’s a business. But, at the same time, I don’t think he took it personally.”
Instead, Swinson traveled out west and toured the University of Oregon. When he set foot in Autzen stadium, it reminded him of his first trip to Sanford. However, instead of a fleeting dream, he felt at home.
Swinson’s first experience in Autzen hatched a parallel emotion to Hill and Whittington — a sense of potential that pushed their childhood ambitions into the rearview mirror. While those memories of family gatherings won’t soon be forgotten, Saturdays in autumn mean something new now.
The first one this season — a trip back to their hometown to take on the team they once heavily rooted for, the Georgia Bulldogs.
