ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Gunner Stockton threw for 295 yards and three touchdowns as No. 2 Georgia cruised to 5-0 with a 38-14 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday.
Georgia scored an opening drive touchdown for the fourth time this season as Stockton found Landon Roldan for a two-yard TD.
A Vanderbilt team led by backup quarterback Blaze Berlowitz showed some fight, answering back two drives later as Berlowitz found Junior Sherrill for a 60-yard touchdown and tied the game 7-all. It was the first first-quarter score for a Georgia opponent all season. The Bulldogs (5-0, 3-0 SEC) had outscored opponents 63-0 in the first quarter through the first four games.
Georgia pulled ahead with back-to-back rushing scores by Chauncey Bowens and Jaden Redell before halftime. The Bulldogs took advantage of good field positioning on the latter after blocking a Vanderbilt field goal attempt midway through the second quarter.
The Commodores (3-2, 0-2) cut into Georgia's lead again before halftime, narrowing the Bulldogs' advantage to 21-14 after a two-yard rushing touchdown by running back Sedrick Alexander.
Georgia extended its lead in the third quarter with an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that took 6:39 off the clock.
Vanderbilt turned the ball over on downs late in the third quarter after a catch by Sherrill was ruled incomplete after a review, and the Bulldogs held Vanderbilt scoreless for the rest of the game.
Georgia: Ellis Robinson IV’s first interception of the season came at a good time early in the fourth quarter, putting the game out of reach for Vanderbilt.
Vanderbilt: Berlowitz's stats on paper (12-of-23, 190 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) didn't quite reflect the signal-caller's knack for keeping drives alive and the Commodores in the game for the first three quarters. He converted on 5-of-9 third-downs in the first half and finished the game with 37 rushing yards on eight carries.
No. 2 Georgia faces No. 10 Alabama on Saturday night.
Vanderbilt hosts No. 9 Ole Miss on Saturday afternoon.
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Vanderbilt quarterback Blaze Berlowitz (1) looks to pass during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/Colin Hubbard)
Georgia tight end Jaden Reddell (23) scores a touchdown during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Vanderbilt, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/Colin Hubbard)
Vanderbilt safety Davin Chandler (21) tackles Georgia running back Chauncey Bowens (5) during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/Colin Hubbard)
The head of Tennessee's prison system is resigning, Gov. Bill Lee announced Saturday, the first major staff shake-up since Christa Pike's stunning failed execution left her unconscious and on a ventilator at a hospital.
Frank Strada, commissioner of the Department of Correction, will step down this month, Lee said. Some of the governor's fellow Republicans and other elected officials had been urging a change in leadership.
It was the second time since May that Tennessee has not been able to execute a prisoner who was seemingly moments away from death.
The governor also announced that former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton would lead a review of what happened in Pike's death chamber. Stanton previously was named to conduct a review after Lee called off a different execution in 2022; he found in that case that Tennessee had not complied with its own lethal injection process.
Strada said in a statement that resigning was “in the best interest of Tennesseans” while Stanton's review is conducted. The state failed to execute Pike despite administering two doses of a lethal drug, pentobarbital.
Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in a jealous rage in 1995. She became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row.
There was no immediate response from Pike's lawyers for an update Saturday on her condition at a hospital. They had disclosed Friday that she was on a ventilator and unconscious in the hours following the execution attempt and that hospital staff were trying to clear the two doses of pentobarbital.
The shocking failure has left both sides of the death penalty debate demanding answers. Lee has ordered an independent review and halted any new executions. Strada said he believes the state “carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol.”
Pike's legal team welcomed Strada's departure but said “it does nothing to help Christa now.”
“What happened to her Wednesday reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person,” the four-lawyer team said. “We hope the governor’s call for a full, independent review will expose the profound problems within Tennessee’s entire death penalty system.”
Pike’s attorneys said they believed problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.
Pike was extraordinarily cooperative with the execution team, even instructing them to “please try here, please try here” as they tried to insert lines, lawyer Randy Spivey told reporters Thursday.
In May, Tennessee stopped the execution of Tony Carruthers after staff placed an IV into his right arm but couldn’t get a secondary IV line. The governor ordered officials to wait at least a year before trying to execute him again.
Strada took over the Correction Department in January 2023 after serving as deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections. In late 2024, he announced that Tennessee was changing its lethal injection protocol and would use only pentobarbital.
Four people have been executed in Tennessee since 2025, according to the Correction Department.
Court filings show that Strada's job included overseeing executions in Arizona when they resumed in 2022 following an eight-year break.
Clarence Dixon was the first that year. The medical team had trouble finding a vein to administer the lethal drugs and finally made an incision in his groin area. The process took about 25 minutes.
That same year in Arizona, medical staff preparing Frank Atwood for execution initially could not locate a vein in his right arm but inserted the IV in his right hand — at Atwood’s suggestion, said Henry Brean, an Arizona Daily Star reporter who was a witness.
Strada announced Murray Hooper's execution by lethal injection, the third in 2022. There was an unsuccessful attempt to insert an IV line in his right arm. The IV in Hooper's leg was inserted into his femoral artery.
“When Governor Lee hired Strada to fix execution problems in Tennessee, his problematic history of executions in Arizona was well known,” said Kit Thomas, an attorney who has represented people on Tennessee's death row.
FILE - Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada speaks to the media after the execution of Harold Wayne Nichols, Dec. 11, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
