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ESPN explains why game against Alabama is Georgia’s most ‘important’ contest in 2025
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ESPN explains why game against Alabama is Georgia’s most ‘important’ contest in 2025
Alabama did not make the College Football Playoff last season. Nick Saban is no longer coaching the program. The Crimson Tide took a step back from the sport’s elite in its first year under Kalen DeBoer.
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I'd agree. It is the first pivotal game of the season and will set the tone going forward. It will also give everyone a good read on how good or not-so-good the team is going to be against the better competition. Glad we've got them at home!
Well Bama has ended all of our “streaks,” and if I was forced to make a pick, I would bet on them ending our nation-leading home winning streak too. Kirby needs to kill this albatross, because it diminishes what he has done at UGA. Not to me, but to a lot of folks.
If Alabama is Georgia's biggest game, then that is not good. Smart doesn't seem like he is capable of beating Alabama. What is he, 1-8? Not good.
Like Pat Dye once said, until you show me different, Georgia is not man enough to beat Alabama. btw Pat Dye was an All-American at Georgia…
Historically Alabama would always be any SEC teams most important game but times have changed. Last year we had an ineffective Carson Beck at QB. The team didn't have confidence in him and his play wasn't up to the standards of his 2023 play. The team rallied around Gunner Stockton and with him coming back as the heir apparent his confidence will increase. I think the offense will again rally around him and the results could be amazing.
All that being said I think the Texas game will be the most important especially with it being toward the end of the season.
Did you not read the article? He's 1-6 against Bama.
Yes, we all know Pat Dye was an All-American at Georgia.
Yep. Georgia is the most important game...on Alabama's schedule. Not UGA's. But, that's gonna be the case, with every team the Dawgs play from now till......?
Georgia's biggest game...Texas... was moved toward the end of the season....for a reason. It's the biggest game on BOTH teams' schedule. Huge game!!! Not necessarily, for the CFP.…but, for the Conference.
IMO....UGA will play Texas again in the CFP...if not the SECCG. Alabama's entire season (hype) rests on how they handle the Dawgs, early in the season.
It's "important" to Alabama and the squawking heads at ESPN,.…to know how Alabama measures-up to the Dawgs & Kirby Smart. We all know what the Dawgs look like, in game 1.…every year.
It's the "Georgia Standard".…and how Deboer measures-up...that has Tide Fans and Media....familiar with that Standard....anticipating that, to be the game of "their season". They still don't know what they have, in Tuscaloosa. Lol....is it Gene Stallings or David Shula?
Who thinks, Deboer will out-work Kirby Smart, in preseason preparation?. Lol
I have a feeling, that the Bama vs UGA game is gonna join the Michigan vs OSU game....as the most anticipated "so what game" of the season. Lol
Reminder.....Bama and Michigan beat their rivals [UGA & OSU] in 2024. Nether team advanced to/in the CFP. Yet, UGA and OSU....the rivals they beat...both played in the quarterfinals and one, was the National Champ, while the other was Conference Champ.
Didn't make any difference to the Dawgs last year. Won't make any difference this year.
Whether it's "****" or "pretty"....fancy or sloppy. I do know one thing is true, based on past performance and current player-coach composition. The Dawgs will be one of the last teams standing at the end of the 2025 season. That's just "who they are", now. What they lack in talent....they make up for, in "heart".
Lolol....the Ghost of Erk Russell is smiling. Much as he's ever smiled, anyway.
IF UGA wants to replace AL as the #1 program in the SE and the #1 destination for recruits in the SE then UGA has to start beating AL regularly. UGA has not been able to beat AL regularly since CKS was hired. That was attributed to the UGA program ascending but AL already having Saban and the #1 CFB program.
Saban is gone. Time for CKS/UGA to start establishing and differentiating UGA's dominance over AL.
Until UGA starts dominating AL like it does with FU and GT, AL will always be the biggest game of the season.
You're exactly right. That, "kickin' Bama's ass" every year, can't start soon enough for me. I cringe, everytime I think of some of the bad beats and close calls. Lol...coulda', woulda', shoulda'. It is what it was. I think, that particular worm, has already turned, though.
If Kirby had won, at least 1 of the games they were favored in...there would've been no argument. As it is...Ryan Day and Kirby Smart are racing in the same type boat. But Day's boat, currently, has a hole in it...IMO.
That being said...Since this is more of a cosmetic debate....["Best" is earned on the field, in football].....Kirby and the Dawgs are clearly in the lead for "Best in SE".…not to mention "Best in Country". I don't see another Program in the Country, with as much upside, consistency and stability...as the Bulldogs.
However.…you're right. If the Dawgs had handled business against what was at least "equal competition at the time", Bama....there would be very little debate.
I'll believe when I see it. So far we haven't seen it. At least vs AL.
2nd and 26. A couple of plays there and the CFB narrative could have been rewritten.
AL is still recruiting at an elite level. AL has the #4 class (Rivals) only because it took less recruits to save room to cherry pick transfers. AL's rating per recruit was technically higher than UGA's in '25. AL also plucked the #1 recruit (Rivals) (and #1 QB) out of the '25 recruiting class. A QB who's HS game eerily resembles that of, UGA nemesis, Jalen Milroe.
AL has done a better job of recruiting offensive impact players (WR and QB) than UGA has. Until that changes UGA/AL games will continue to be defense vs offense games. CFB rules favor offense.
"Best in Country". I don't see another Program in the Country, with as much upside, consistency and stability...as the Bulldogs." You may be right. That is very dependent on UGA landing Jared Curtis. It will be interesting to watch when/if UGA adjusts its recruiting strategy to attract more blue chip offensive players. "RBU" even starting to have difficulty recruiting RB's. '25 recruit Bo Walker is the 11th rated RB (Rivals) in the class.
But the perception of UGA has always been that UGA 1) really struggles to win big games, 2) UGA (or any of his former assistants) can't beat Saban and 3) the last 2 seasons has brought UGA back to the pack w/OSU, AL, TX, OR, etc. NIL and the TP have been the great equalizer leveling the CFB landscape.
Beating DeBoer in their 1st meeting would've have gone a long way to quieting the UGA/AL narrative. Another AL win in '25 cements the narrative and sets back recruiting (or advances AL recruiting) another year. That is why the '25 meeting is still the most important game on the schedule.
"That is why the '25 meeting is still the most important game on the schedule."____ugada20
A'ight...GD....I'll give you this......You laid down a pretty good argument for that statement. I still ain't buyin' it, though. And, I'll tell you why.
Losing an early-season game to Alabama will hurt a lot less, than losing a late-season game to Texas.
On the other hand....losing an early-season game to UGA will do one of two things, for Bama. EITHER....Bama will respond in Saban-like fashion and pour it on, the rest of the year.....OR.... Bama will fold like lawn chairs, cause they don't have that "culture & mindset", anymore.
I think that's the resounding question mark in the UGA vs Bama game. How will Bama respond to losing the game?....or winning the game. Just, "how will they respond?"....Do they have "It", with Deboer?
I'll be honest with you....i watched Deboer in an interview and halftime speech [vs Auburn] today...and, wasn't impressed. He reminds of the West Coast "laid back bro". Lol