Hey folks - as a member of the DawgNation community, please remember to abide by simple rules of civil engagement with other members:
- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
Georgia football podcast: Fans might be surprised by early projections for UGA in 2025
System
admin
Georgia football podcast: Fans might be surprised by early projections for UGA in 2025
Brandon Adams looks at some of the surprising predictions for the Dawgs. Later, we get the thoughts of Eagles coach Nick Siriani on former UGA star Nolan Smith.
Comments
Why would we be behind Oregon? Surely Dillan Gabriel doesn't have yet a 15th year of eligibility? And say what you will about Georgia's up and down season, but Oregon had their hands full with teams like Idaho, Boise and Wisconsin. So it's not like that embarrassing blowout they just suffered was some total fluke.
And we're even with Texas? How many times do we have to beat them? Of course there's more to it than just head-to-head results, but putting them in their full context, what has Texas done to show that they're right there on Georgia's level?
Georgia has recently shown that they can actually get there. Oregon and Texas, not so much.
@E_Roc
On Oregon, I hope that you and other SEC fans aren't doing the schedule superiority thing, because that requires ignoring that Texas over 10-4 Clemson, Ole Miss over 9-4 Duke and Vanderbilt over 7-6 Georgia Tech were the SEC's only bright spots this bowl season. In particular, Ohio State-Texas, Ohio State-Tennessee, Notre Dame-Georgia, Alabama-Michigan and South Carolina-Illinois saw the SEC go winless against the Big 10 + Notre Dame with most of the losses being double digits and every single SEC offense being held under 20 points. Also, I find it funny that UGA fans are treating Gunner Stockton as a "returning starter" when he has 1 career TD pass (and 2 turnovers). In any case, UGA's best returning WR didn't reach 500 yards in 13 starts and UGA returns 2 RBs who had 600 yards and can't break long runs. And they lose 4 of 5 starters on the OL, and expect all of them to be drafted (though Truss almost certainly as a guard).
As for Texas, you are aware that they made the 2023 playoff that UGA missed? Yes, by winning the weaker Big 12 … but also by beating the Alabama team that beat UGA and doing so in Tuscaloosa. Texas also not only won 2 playoff games this year to UGA's 0, but where UGA lost to ND by 2 scores, the Texas-OSU game wasn't decided until an 83 yard fumble recovery with 4 minutes left in a game that included OSU needing to stop Texas on a goal line stand. So as for "but putting them in their full context, what has Texas done to show that they're right there on Georgia's level?" in the past 2 seasons they have:
Plus, again: depth chart. Unlike UGA, Texas returns the right side of their OL. They also return two WRs that would have easily started for UGA this year or last, one of whom is a likely future #1 NFL draft pick. At RB they return both a 1000 yard rusher AND their projected starter who missed 2024 due to injury.
So yeah. Their rating Texas and Oregon over UGA is totally justified. Everyone now acknowledges that UGA lost a ton of talent from 2021, 2022 and 2023 that they haven't reloaded, especially on offense.
A typical thadec - sorry, benzone - response, as hollow as it is lengthy. To state the obvious, I didn't make a strength of schedule argument, aside from pointing to specific results from Oregon that indicate the blowout loss on which they ended their season didn't really come out of the blue. So your first, what, 12 lines are irrelevant.
And your response to my pointing out that it's not clear who Oregon's quarterback is even going to be is to say that Stockton, who was a highly rated recruit and has been at Georgia for a few years, hasn't played much? I don't know how that's supposed to establish that Oregon should be seen as the better team altogether.
Your argument about Texas leans heavily on a handful of games against one common opponent. So, you find my point about head-to-head results unconvincing, and you counter it by pointing to a less direct comparison. Hm.
Playoffs appearances? You said yourself that Texas had an easier path in 2023, when Georgia was the #1 team throughout the year and got pushed out after their first loss - by a field goal - in two calendar years. This year, Georgia entered the playoffs as a higher seed than Texas. One of those playoff wins for Texas came against a team that Georgia beat by 31 this year. The other was in overtime against an Arizona State team that had drastically overachieved to even get there. Not exactly compelling.
You flirt with a cogent argument about returning talent for Texas, amounting to a couple of offensive lineman and a few impressive skill players. If they can do more for Texas next year than they did this year, then yeah, could be very formidable. Of course, that's an if.
For all of Georgia's issues in need of correcting - relative to recent seasons - they was still better than Texas this year. No one knows whether teams like Texas and Oregon will find a way to do something they have yet to show, and actually field a better team than Georgia. So I don't see why they should be projected now as stronger, or equal, teams just because Georgia - gasp - lost a playoff game. That was the very simple point I was trying to make. But as usual, it got lost in all the fluff.