Will Carson Beck, UGA Football Be Ready for Tough Slog in the Middle of 2023?
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ATHENS - The middle of the 2023 season will be slammed with four SEC games for Kirby Smart and UGA Football.
Having run the gauntlet of UT-Martin, Ball State, South Carolina, and UAB in the first four weeks, the 2023 Dawgs will face four consecutive SEC foes in the middle third of the season. While the level of competition will increase, it may only do so marginally based on the four teams Kirby Smart and crew will meet. Assuming wins in the first four contests, Georgia will enter this middle part of the season having answered multiple questions they entered the season with, while their four opponents may still be working through the lingering issues from the spring practice season.
This middle segment starts with Auburn on the road (Sept 30), followed by a home tilt against Kentucky. Another road trip to Vanderbilt the next week will be followed by the bye week and the annual party that’s not a party in Jacksonville against the hated Gators. None of these opponents SHOULD threaten another championship run by Georgia. Is there a 2022 Missouri moment in this part of the season?
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Let’s start with the first game of this part of the season. UGA will travel to Auburn to face the Tigers (or is it the War Eagles?) now coached by the sanctimonious Hugh Freeze. His second stint in the SEC, following his abrupt and embarrassing departure from Ole Miss in 2017, sees him inherit a program that has seen better days. Auburn’s four most talented players (Owen Pappoe, Tank Bigsby, Derrick Hall, Colby Wooden) were drafted into the NFL just a couple of weeks ago, and there are no true star-ish players on the roster to replace them. Freeze has taken advantage of the transfer portal in an attempt to rebuild this roster, but has also lost as many players as he’s brought in. Auburn has two steep challenges coming into 2023. First is the quarterback. Returning starter Robby Ashford is a dangerous athlete who happens to play quarterback. He struggled most of the 2022 season with accuracy and decision making. While he appears to be the incumbent coming out of spring, Auburn is rumored to be in the market for a couple of portal quarterbacks. It’s obvious, then, that Freeze isn’t terribly comfortable with his quarterback room. The second issue is the offensive line. Last year’s squad was horrible and the returning players don’t evoke a tremendous amount of hope. So, Freeze has brought in 3 linemen to shore up a below-average unit. The problem is those 3 transfers come from much smaller programs which doesn’t portend well when you have to face the likes of UGA, LSU and Alabama. The final nail in the Tiger / War Eagle coffin for this game is Kirby’s long memory. Most of us watched the painful 2016 contest between UGA and Ole Miss, a 45-14 drubbing. The Freeze-coached Rebels continued to throw deep passes well into the 4th quarter. I’m sure Kirby remembers that and won’t mind returning the favor. Freeze may be a good coach, but he’s an awful human. Dawgs win this game in an embarrassingly boring fashion.
The Kentucky Wildcats come to Sanford Stadium the following week with many of the same issues faced by Auburn. Will Levis is gone to the NFL, and the Wildcats were horrendous on the offensive line in 2022. UK was 112th in scoring last season and the two main weapons were both drafted. Kentucky did bring in Devin Leary from NC State to take over the starting quarterback role. Leary is talented but hasn’t faced the defensive speed he’ll see in the SEC. While he may be a serviceable starter, the Wildcats must still figure out the offensive line as well as fill out the skill positions. Liam Cohen returns as the offensive coordinator, but that may not matter given the dearth of talent he inherits on offense. Defensively, Kentucky has a returning Freshman All American in defensive tackle Deone Walker as well as other front-seven players who played significant snaps in 2022. The secondary, however, has to replace 3 of 4 starters. Mark Stoops is a good coach, and his teams always play with effort and toughness. Kirby Smart is 7-0 against Kentucky by a combined 184-76 score, and there is little reason to think 2023 will bring anything different.
Up next is Vanderbilt at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville. Georgia fans own that stadium like it’s a family timeshare on the beach. Georgia has won the last two games against the Commodores by a total of 117-0. That’s zero as in zip, zilch, nada. Vanderbilt suffers from the same maladies as the previous two opponents in that they have both quarterback and offensive line issues. What compounds these issues is that Vanderbilt’s overall talent level is generally not SEC-caliber, that combined with losing five coaches from last season’s 5-7 squad might make 2023 a tough season for the Commodores. But, they’ll always have victories over Florida and Kentucky from 2022…..
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The final game in this middle third of the season finds the Dawgs in Jacksonville to take on the fighting Billy Napiers of Florida. That same Florida program that boasted the 4th player selected in the 2023 NFL Draft but yet somehow finished 6-7 in 2022. Explain that, Gator fans. Napier’s squad looked absolutely benign in the spring game. Transfer quarterback Graham Mertz is the heir apparent to Anthony Richardson but he has few weapons and a porous offensive line to work with. The lone player who would have a roster spot with Georgia is running back Trevor Etienne. He showed explosiveness and elusiveness last season, gaining over 700 yards on the ground with 6 touchdowns. Defensively Florida will have a new defensive coordinator but not much else. Is it too soon to compare Florida to Vanderbilt talent-wise? I have nothing against Billy Napier. I think he’s a good guy. Might be a decent coach. But if folks are comparing your talent level to that of the Commodores, you got some issues, my friend. I think it’s safe to say a 6-6 campaign for Napier and the Gators would be a success. Looking at their schedule, I can see only two somewhat sure wins. Starting the season at Utah could be ugly and may set the campaign off on the wrong foot. Let’s be honest….Georgia wins this game. The only questions are by how much, and how early do we see the second and third string players take over.
The middle third of the 2023 season will offer a little more resistance for the Dawgs than the first four games, but not by much. Freeze may have some creative tricks but doesn’t have the horses to run with Georgia. Kentucky will play hard and physical, but this may be the least talented and experienced team Mark Stoops has fielded. Vanderbilt is….Vanderbilt. Florida might have a historically poor season. At the end of this segment of the season, Georgia should be 8-0, getting there somewhat comfortably. The question for UGA, though, will there be a 2022 Missouri moment in these first 8 games? Is there a team that could challenge the Dawgs if they don’t bring their best effort? If there is on this schedule, so far, I’d go with Kentucky. Even though Georgia will outclass the Wildcats at each position group, Kentucky will play hard. Sleepwalk through that game, much like the Dawgs did that cold October night in Columbia last year, and you find yourself in brawl where the outcome isn’t certain. Kirby’s Dawgs have the opportunity through the first 8 games to firmly answer any questions coming into the season, and to prepare for the final stretch of the season that will determine who wins the last SEC East banner enroute to the SEC Championship game and a berth in the 2023 College Football Playoff. Georgia fans have come to expect dominance, and the first 8 games provide that opportunity. Anything less than dominance will be, frankly, disappointing. You want to prove how menacing your program is? Destroy your opponents and put the fear of Kirby in them. Play with your food, only once, and you give future opponents hope. When your enemy has hope, they have a chance. Kill the hope, kill the chance.
With Beck likely leading the ‘Dawgs at quarterback, the Bulldogs have +220 odds to win their third-consecutive national championship in 2023 according to FanDuel.