Legge's Thoughts: UGA Football Could Have What It Takes in 2025
ATHENS - UGA football fans were there to see it all Saturday Between the Hedges at Sanford Stadium.
They were the only ones. The lack of TV coverage left millions of Georgia fans out in the dark. Those that saw the performance on Saturday had to be encouraged that some of the issues the program had last season with explosion on offense appear to be remedied (as much as possible in a spring game at least).
Fans also saw rebuilt offensive and defensive lines. They saw a run game that appeared to have potential, and a defensive line that seemed deep if not unspectacular. If Georgia wins it all in 2025 (a curious way to start a sentence) these Dawgs will have to do it with steady work. There is no one player that is unstoppable.
This is a talented team, but it is not blessed with the talent of the last few Georgia teams. That’s the bad news for Georgia. The good news is that college football, the entire sport outside of maybe Clemson, appears to be taking a step back from where they were in 2025.
No one that’s serious is going to predict that Ohio State will be better in 2025. Same goes for Notre Dame, Tennessee and pretty much everyone in the playoff with the possible execution of Penn State and Clemson.
Penn State? I will believe them winning it all when I see it.
So the opportunity is there for these Dawgs. And what I saw Saturday was progress. I’m not sure I saw any star players the likes of which Georgia has had in the past. Brock Bowers. Ladd McConkey. Jalen Carter. Jordan Davis… they aren’t out there.
Stetson Bennett wasn’t Stetson “Them Dawgs is Hell” Bennett until a slew of starts into his career. It seems he really didn’t get going until Georgia went to Knoxville in 2021. That was 12 starts into his career at Georgia.
Gunner Stockton has started once.
How fast can Stockton get to where he needs to be in order for Georgia to be more like 2022 and 2023 than 2024? Georgia won the SEC title a year ago with toughness and persistence. Nothing got in their way - losses; poor offensive execution; multiple overtime games; trips to Austin, Tuscaloosa and Oxford… it wasn’t easy, and it certainly wasn’t pretty, but it was.
This season could be much prettier for sure, but the key to that is going to be Stockton’s play. I have seen him play live since he was a sophomore in high school. He totally understands how to play quarterback. He doesn’t have the ability of the last two starters at Georgia, but he does have complete confidence in what he’s doing.
And it isn’t false confidence - its a real thing - an understanding of how to play. That is probably the most important thing about playing that position. After that you need experience; and he’s only gotten a taste of that. It seems irrational to question Stockton’s ability to win the big game, or how he will react to big moments when the guy came off the bench to beat No. 2 Texas in the SEC Championship Game.
I mean, he understands the moment. Anyone that watched him at Rabun would already know that he’s got all the training he needs to be effective. In my opinion Stockton only needs reps and time.
That doesn’t mean this is just a matter of time. Stockton is going to have to go out there and do it. That’s the hard part. Competition isn’t about potential. That’s what drafts are for. In actual games you have to execute - even if you don’t have “it” that day.
Rory McIlroy’s win Sunday in Augusta was one of the best examples of fighting - not just yourself, but the course and the other competitors. He steadied himself after losing the lead two holes into the round, and then recovered after missing a very makable putt to win the Masters on the first hole of the playoff.
He nearly let is slip away twice. But his mental toughness has been so developed that it was, I would suggest, as important as anything he did physically.
Georgia could learn a ton from what McIlroy did Sunday. We all could.
That said, think about what this program got through a season ago - the schedule; the injuries; the expectations; winning ugly… the traits are there in the program even if the talent isn’t what it was.
College football is going to be about the ability of coaching staffs to bring together teams that are less and less congealed with one another because fewer and fewer players are staying at one school for extended periods of time.
Kirby Smart recently said that the 2024 season was his best coaching job. I’m not sure I disagree with him. And while I’ve always been team talent, this season Georgia’s coaches (and everyone else’s) are going to earn the significant money they make. The world is constantly changing, and college football is no different.
It is irrelevant, or should be, that things have changed and continue to change. We are at where we are at. If what Kirby said in middle March is true - that he has the best staff in America - then Georgia should be back in the CFP, and this season should play better when it gets there.
This doesn’t look like an exceptional team, but the run of exceptional teams that took us from 2018 Clemson through 2022 Georgia has expired. Those teams - particularly the string of four SEC champs in a row - were not at all normal. Most national champions are like this past Ohio State team. I don’t mean the part about getting your ass whipped (again) by your underdog arch rival at your place. I mean they are full of flaws.
And this UGA team has flaws.
Can this offensive line be better than a season ago?
Is there a star on the defensive line?
This Georgia team sure does seem young...
UGA seems like it has plenty of good backs, but do they have a special one?
Can Mike Bobo get this offense going like he did in 2023?
What don’t we know that can adversely effect this team?
Can this group stay healthy? 2024 and 2023, frankly, were saddled with injuries (Beck, McConkey and Bowers to name a few).
We don’t know what we don’t know...
But I know this - the opportunity is there for this Georgia team to get it done, and raise the trophy in Miami this winter. I don’t think that’s asking too much. The betting markets don’t think so, either. The Dawgs, Texas, Ohio State and Oregon are the four-team cluster that has the heaviest odds of winning it all… then Penn State, then a cliff, then Notre Dame, Bama and the Taters.
This doesn’t look like a “great” Georgia team. It doesn’t look like we have a “great” team in college football. I will say that Georgia might be slightly further along right now than folks realize. If that’s far enough along to matter in a major way to start the season is up for debate.
But this year won’t be won in September, October or November. Consider that Texas, Ohio State and Penn State all lost after Thanksgiving and made up 75% of the semifinals in 2024. This is about peaking at the right time - and Ohio State certainly did that in 2024.
There isn’t any magic to this. The best team usually wins. Who will that be this winter?
It could be these Dawgs if they play their cards right.
