BREAKING: UGA Football Picked by Media to Win 2024 SEC Championship
DALLAS - Kirby Smart‘s UGA football was picked to win the 2024 SEC championship at Media Days. It is the second year in a row the Dawgs have been picked No. 1 in the SEC during the event.
This is only the second time since 2015 that someone other than Alabama has been picked to win the league. UGA football coach Kirby Smart and his Bulldogs are expected to be ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation heading into the fall. Last season the Bulldogs’ attempt to be the first team in modern college football to win three national titles in a row ended with a 27-24 loss to Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship Game. Saban is now an analyst at ESPN.
According to FanDuel, the Bulldogs are the betting favorite (+300) to win the 2024 College Football Playoff. This year’s CFP is the first with 12 teams.
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This is only the third time ever the Bulldogs have only been picked to win the league by the media (2004, 2023 and 2024). Georgia has won the SEC four times since voting began in 1992. The lone time the Dawgs were picked to win the league with Kirby Smart not as head coach came in 2004 when the Dawgs finished second in the SEC East - going 10-2 in David Greene and David Pollack’s final seasons at UGA.
Favored or not, the Bulldogs will have to overcome some significant changes to the roster and coaching staff in 2023. Brock Bowers, Ladd McConkey, Kamari Lassiter, Javon Bullard and others are gone from a program that lost only three games in three seasons.
The Bulldogs' schedule is likely the most difficult in the nation as the Dawgs are set to play on the road against three top-ten teams in most pre-season polls. The Bulldogs will open the season in Atlanta against Clemson. Georgia will host Georgia Tech, Tennessee and Auburn. And the Dawgs will face the Gators in that game's traditional home in Jacksonville.
Kirby's Dawgs will rely on returning starting QB Carson Beck, who is considered a Heisman favorite in that award's wide-open 2024 race. The Jacksonville native started in 2023 and led the Bulldogs to another top--five finish. Beck is considered a future 1st-round NFL Draft pick by a slew of experts.
Georgia opens the 2024 season in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta at noon against Dabo Swinney's Clemson Tigers. The Tigers are expected to be ranked entering 2024. Clemson ended last season going 9-4 with a 38-35 win over Kentucky in the Gator Bowl. The first home game of the year is against Tennessee Tech in Sanford Stadium in Athens. Georgia's first SEC game of the season is at Kentucky on September 14th in primetime on ABC.
2024 SEC Media Pre-Season Poll:
1. Georgia - 3,330
2. Texas - 3,041
3. Alabama - 2,891
4. Ole Miss - 2,783
5. LSU - 2,322
6. Missouri - 2,240
7. Tennessee - 2,168
8. Oklahoma - 2,022
9. Texas A&M - 1,684
10. Auburn - 1,382
11. Kentucky - 1,371
12. Florida - 1,146
13. South Carolina - 923
14. Arkansas - 749
15. Mississippi State - 623
16. Vanderbilt - 293
SEC Champion:
1. Georgia - 165
2. Texas - 27
3. Alabama - 12
4. Ole Miss - 4
5. LSU - 2
5. Vanderbilt - 2
7. South Carolina
2024 PRESEASON MEDIA DAYS ALL-SEC TEAM
OFFENSE
First-Team
QB – Carson Beck, UGA
RB - Trevor Etienne, UGA
RB – Jarquez Hunter, AU
WR - Luther Burden III, MIZ
WR - Tre Harris, UM
TE - Caden Prieskorn, UM
OL - Tyler Booker, UA
OL - Will Campbell, LSU
OL - Kelvin Banks Jr., TEX
OL - Tate Ratledge, UGA
C - Cooper Mays, UT
Second-Team
QB – Quinn Ewers, TEX
RB - Raheim Sanders, SC
*RB - CJ Baxter, TEX
*RB - Montrell Johnson Jr., UF
WR - Isaiah Bond, TEX
WR - Kyren Lacy, LSU
TE - Mason Taylor, LSU
OL - Emery Jones, LSU
OL - Kadyn Proctor, UA
OL - Xavier Truss, UGA
OL - Dylan Fairchild, UGA
C - Parker Brailsford, UA
Third-Team
QB – Jalen Milroe, UA
RB - Justice Haynes, UA
RB - Ulysses Bentley, UM
WR - Deion Burks, OU
WR - Dominic Lovett, UGA
TE - Oscar Delp, UGA
OL - Earnest Greene III, UGA
OL - Marques Cox, UK
OL - Trey Zuhn III, TAMU
OL - Jaeden Roberts, UA
C - Jake Majors, TEX
DEFENSE
First-Team
DL - James Pearce Jr., UT
DL - Walter Nolen, UM
DL - Deone Walker, UK
DL - Nazir Stackhouse, UGA
LB - Harold Perkins, LSU
LB - Danny Stutsman, OU
*LB - Deontae Lawson, UA
*LB - Mykel Williams, UGA
DB - Malaki Starks, UGA
DB - Malachi Moore, UA
DB - Billy Bowman, OU
DB - Maxwell Hairston, UK
Second-Team
DL - Shemar Turner, TAMU
DL - Landon Jackson, ARK
DL - Nic Scourton, TAMU
*DL - Tim Smith, UA
*DL - Jared Ivey, UM
LB - Debo Williams, SC
LB - Anthony Hill Jr., TEX
LB - Smael Mondon Jr., UGA
DB - Jahdae Barron, TEX
DB - Major Burns, LSU
DB - Andrew Mukuba, TEX
DB - Malik Muhammad, TEX
Third-Team
DL - Tim Keenan III, UA
DL - Princely Umanmielen , UM
DL - Trey Moore, TEX
DL - Tonka Hemingway, SC
LB - Jamon "Pop" Dumas-Johnson, UK
LB - Jihaad Campbell, UA
LB - Eugene Asante, AU
DB - Domani Jackson, UA
DB - Daylen Everette, UGA
DB - Jason Marshall Jr., UF
*DB - Keon Sabb, UA
*DB - Nick Emmanwori, SC
SPECIALISTS
First-Team
P - James Burnip, UA
PK - Bert Auburn, TEX
LS - Kneeland Hibbett, UA
KS – Alex McPherson, AU
RS - Barion Brown, UK
AP - Zavion Thomas, LSU
Second-Team
P - Brett Thorson, UGA
PK - Graham Nicholson, UA
LS – Hunter Rogers, SC
KS - Will Stone, TEX
RS - Zavion Thomas, LSU
AP - Dillion Bell, UGA
Third-Team
P - Jeremy Crawshaw, UF
PK - Alex McPherson, AU
LS - Slade Roy, LSU
KS – Trey Smack, UF
RS - Keionte Scott, AU
*AP - Barion Brown, UK
*AP - Jaydon Blue, TEX
* - Indicates a tie