The Georgia Bulldogs "Are Going to be the Class of the SEC East"
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ATHENS - We are a long way from the Georgia Bulldogs kicking the season off against Clemson in Charlotte.
Still, Kirby Smart’s program is the one to watch according to the folks over at the SEC Network.
“Georgia is going to be the class of the SEC East,” former Auburn coach Gene Chizik said last week. “They are going to be the one to beat in the East.”
Betting odds have not surfaced quite yet for things like this. And you will pay close attention to the fact that Chizik didn’t say “the class of the SEC right now” probably for a lot of different reasons. Still, the old defensive guru is correct when he points all of this out.
Starters returning? Georgia has a lot of them, and they are in important spots like quarterback, running back and on the offensive line. Manageable schedule? Yes. This year the Gators will have to deal with the Dawgs and LSU (as usual), but will also add a game with Alabama, too.
Speaking of the Gators, so much of the East (and the rest of the league) has turnover this winter. Florida loses Heisman finalist Kyle Trask, Kadarius Toney, Trevon Grimes and Kyle Pitts. All of them are gone. Dan Mullen spent the final three games of 2020 on a curious downslide that seemed to end with his flirting with the NFL, but that league not flirting back.
Kentucky and Missouri will have a hard time keeping up with Georgia in Athens in 2021. It is hard to predict where Tennessee, Vanderbilt and South Carolina go from here, but taking out Georgia with new head coaches in 2021 doesn’t seem to be likely.
Kirby’s program has managed to lose to SEC East schools exactly twice in the four seasons. Twice - and one of those losses was in overtime. We’ve seen about a season of Georgia trying to figure itself out on the offensive side of the ball (From South Carolina 2019 to South Carolina 2020). And while that was ugly; the final few games of 2020 showed that Georgia can be explosive (Missouri and South Carolina) and have the ability to score when it has to (Mississippi State and Cincinnati).
What will another nine months of training and scheming mean for the Dawgs’ ability to be even more explosive? Georgia’s defense will have to continue to be great, but when has that group not been good enough to win games? LSU in 2019; Florida in 2020? Alabama in 2020? All three of those games took place during the time UGA’s offense was struggling to score.
Will that be the case in those types of games in the future? We get a chance to see that right away with the Clemson game to start the season. But no matter the outcome of that one it sure seems like the Dawgs will be in Atlanta for the fourth time in five seasons the first Saturday in December.
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