WATCH: ESPN College GameDay Crew Unanimously Picks Alabama to Beat UGA Football
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TUSCALOOSA - Kirby Smart’s No. 2-ranked UGA Football is on the road this weekend in a colassal matchup with the Alabama Crimson Tide.
ESPN’s College Gameday is in Tuscaloosa this weekend and the entire crew picked Alabama to win, ending with Lee Corso putting on the elaphant head. This is Corso’s 38th time picking Alabama on College GameDay.
The Bulldogs will take on Kalen DeBoer’s program at 7:30 in Tuscaloosa in a game that will be televised by ABC. The game is the end of a tripleheader on ABC that will feature the Dawgs and Tide.
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The Elephant In The Room
Alabama is the last team to beat Georgia (2023 SEC Championship Game), and the last team to register a regular season home win over the Bulldogs when they did it in Tus- caloosa on Oct. 17, 2020. Georgia’s last regular season loss came on Nov. 7, 2020 to Florida in Jacksonville. Since then, the Bulldogs have won 42 in a row during the regular season. UA leads the all-time series over Georgia 43-26-4.
Georgia’s last win over the Crimson Tide came on Jan. 10, 2022 by a score of 33-18 and delivered the Bulldogs their first national championship since 1980. It capped a 14-1 season. Then, Georgia became the first team in the CFP-era to repeat as champions, going 15-0 in 2022. The Bulldogs went 12-0 in 2023 before falling to the Tide.
Georgia hasn’t played host to Alabama since 2015, and on Saturday, Sept. 28, the Bulldogs return to Tuscaloosa for the second time since 2020. The Crimson Tide will visit Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium in 2025.
JUNKYARD DAWGS TRI-BLEND T-SHIRT
SMART Football:The Streaks
*The 2024 Senior Class is 45-2 (39-0 in the regular season). The 2023 Senior Class has the school record at 50-4 with two national titles, an SEC crown plus went 6-0 in bowl/CFP games.
*Georgia is riding a school record 26-game home winning streak, which leads in FBS.
*Georgia owns the nation’s longest active bowl streak at 27 seasons and has won its last seven matchups.
*Georgia is 49-2 in last 51 games with a school record streak of 42 consecutive regular season victories.
*Georgia has an SEC and school record streak of 28 consecutive SEC regular season wins.
*Georgia has a 16-game winning streak in an opponent’s home stadium, which leads in FBS. The streak began in 2020 with a 14-3 win over Kentucky. Georgia last fell at No. 2 Alabama in 2020.
Beck By Popular Demand
Senior Carson Beck is 16-1 in his career as the starting quarterback (6-1 against top 20 teams), the loss coming to then No. 8 (CFP) Alabama 27-24 in the 2023 SEC Championship Game. Beck opened the 2024 season with a 34-3 win over No. 14 Clemson in Atlanta, going 23-for-33 for 278 yards and two TDs to earn SEC Co-Offensive Player of the Week honors. He followed that with a school record-tying five TD passes in a 48-3 rout of Tennessee Tech and a 13-12 road win at UK. The Georgia offense is bolstered by four starting linemen returning in LT Earnest Greene III, LG Dylan Fairchild, RG Tate Ratledge and RT Xavier Truss. However, Ratledge is sidelined after an ankle injury in the UK game. The skill players share the load as Beck utilizes multiple options in the backfield, at wideout and tight end. A Georgia single game record-tying 15 Bulldogs caught a pass in the win over the Golden Eagles.
Aiming To Be Elite On All Fronts Again
The Bulldogs opened the 2024 season ranked No. 1 in the AP and US LBM Coaches poll for the third time in school history (2008, 2023). Georgia (3-0, 1-0 SEC) dropped to No. 2 in the AP poll after its 13-12 road win over Kentucky on Sept. 14 and remain at No. 2 this week. The Bulldogs have the longest active streak of being ranked in the AP top 10 (54 straight polls). The Bulldogs will face five teams that were preseason ranked in the top 15 including three of those on the road in Texas, Alabama and Ole Miss plus a fourth at a neutral site (Clemson in Atlanta) while Tennessee visits Athens too.
Did You Know? Georgia is the only team to have finished in the top seven of the final AP poll in each of the past seven seasons. The last team to start and finish a season at No. 1 was Alabama in 2017.
Did You Know, Part II? Head coach Kirby Smart is unbeaten against all active head coaches over the past five years. Georgia is 65-6 in that span. The coaches no longer active who have wins over Georgia during this stretch: Nick Saban (3) along with Will Muschamp, Ed Orgeron and Dan Mullen.
The Standard IsThe Standard
The more things change the more they stay the same. The Bulldogs are the only FBS team that has not allowed a TD this season. Opponents have six field goals on the year against the Bulldogs. In 2024, the Bulldogs limited 14th-ranked Clemson to three points, Tenn. Tech kicked a field goal on the final play of the game and UK made four field goals. Georgia’s leading tackler is sophomore LB CJ Allen with 15 while Smael Mondon Jr., Daylen Everette and Raylen Wilson are next with 12 apiece. Georgia has eight sacks led by Wilson and Jalon Walker with 1.5 while junior Malaki Starks has an interception and senior Dan Jackson and sophomore Damon Wilson II have a fumble recovery. Seven of 11 starters return from the 2023 defense that ranked fifth nationally in Scoring Defense (15.6 ppg) and led the nation in 3rd Down Conversion (25.7%).
Up next, second-ranked Georgia (3-0, 1-0 SEC) battles fourth-ranked Alabama (3-0, 0-0 SEC). The teams last met in the 2023 SEC Championship Game in Atlanta with UA posting a 27-24 decision. Georgia saw its 29-game wininng streak end and a bid to win its third straight national championship. Alabama is sixth nationally in Scoring OFfense (49.0 ppg) and sixth in Scoring Defense (8.67 ppg).