Georgia hasn’t fallen. It’s fifth in the preseason Associated Press poll. It was fourth last year, third in 2019 and 2018. That doesn’t reflect a plunge. It does, however, indicate the tiniest bit of slippage, at least in the minds of AP voters.
This isn’t so much a dismissal – a top-five ranking is still a big deal – as a nod to reality. In 2017, Georgia won the SEC East, the SEC championship game and lost the national title tilt in overtime. In 2018, it won the East, lost in a hairbreadth SEC championship game and finished fifth in the College Football Playoff rankings. In 2019, it won the East, lost to LSU by 27 points in the SEC championship and finished a more distant fifth in the CFP ratings.
Last year, Georgia didn’t win the East for the first time since 2016, Kirby Smart’s first season as coach. It lost twice – Florida, the division champ, would end up losing double that total – but its best victory came over Cincinnati of the American Conference in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. The Bulldogs finished ninth in the CFP ratings, seventh in the final AP poll.
Given that Georgia saw the quarterback it expected to start in Week 1 opt out just after Labor Day; given that the Bulldogs would start three other quarterbacks over the first seven games; given the fits and starts inherent in the pandemic season … well, finishing 8-2 while playing a regular season only against SEC opposition was an accomplishment. It was not the accomplishment Bulldog Nation has awaited for 40 years.
In 2017 and maybe 2018, Georgia was good enough to win it all. It lost two games to Alabama in which the Crimson Tide – this still defies belief – didn’t snap the ball while holding a lead. In 2019, nobody was beating LSU. Last year, nobody was beating what might have been the best Bama ever, although the Bulldogs were the one team to lead the Tide at the half.
You cannot look at Georgia’s four-year body of work and see a program in retreat. Nobody has forgotten about the Bulldogs, though they could stand to send the nation a reminder. What was the last truly big game they won? Florida in 2019? The last win over Auburn that seemed a major deal was the SEC championship on Dec. 2, 2017.
Since 2016, Georgia is 22-2 against the SEC East, which says a lot about Georgia and even more about the East. Tennessee, South Carolina and Vanderbilt are working under new coaches. Eli Drinkwitz is starting his second year at Missouri. Check the Bulldogs’ schedule, and you’ll find two opponents ranked in preseason. One is Florida. The other is … well, you know.
A competitive loss in Charlotte to Clemson wouldn’t rule Georgia out of anything. It’s not a conference game, and almost everybody loses to Clemson. A victory would spawn declarations that the Bulldogs are back, though they really haven’t gone away. Georgia is a slight underdog against the Tigers. If it wins Saturday night, it won’t be an underdog again until the first Saturday in December, if then.
The quarterback rotation that held Georgia back for much of 2020 is no longer a rotation. The playoff teams from last season are working with new No. 1s. JT Daniels is the reason this Georgia season seems promising in a way that the last two haven’t. In 2019, Jake Fromm was left without top-shelf receivers. Last year, Georgia went through D’wan Mathis and Stetson Bennett before turning to Daniels. This year, the pieces – except, yet again, the unlucky George Pickens – seem to be in place.
Said tight end John FitzPatrick, speaking Monday via Zoom: “There’s a sense of excitement around the locker room. We’re ready.”
Daniels called it a “huge stage.” Even Smart went so far as to say, “Fans crave this kind of game. Coaches crave this kind of game a measurement.”
The burden of proof falls on Georgia. The Bulldogs last played for the national title on Jan. 8, 2018. The Tigers have reached the playoff six years running, winning it twice. Clemson is a given. Georgia isn’t quite. The Bulldogs – let’s face it – won’t have many chances to lose after this weekend. Beating Clemson would put them in Position A to make the playoff, maybe as the top seed.
It’s only one game, yes. For the Bulldogs, it’s the biggest in a while. At the risk of sounding sophmoric, they need it more. They’ll win 31-27.
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