ESPN: Confusion sets in over Kirby Smart’s statement ahead of Georgia’s five key games for the 2024 SEC and CFP championships.
Counting down the Bulldogs’ pivotal games for the next season amid a challenging schedule.
Despite facing one of the most difficult schedules in college football, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs are aware that this fall’s national preseason No. 1 pick still has high expectations: Reach the pinnacle of the SEC and return to the College Football Playoffs to compete for the national championship. Georgia has the team to succeed, no doubt, but the challenge this one presents will not be easy.
Examining the schedule and identifying Georgia’s top five games for the 2024 campaign, these are the contests that will determine the Bulldogs’ season and those that the playoff selection committee has highlighted before the final voting in December. The teams that advance to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game will also be determined by the results.
The only team in the country, Georgia, has the potential to face three teams ranked in the top five this season and three more that are in the top 25 away from home. The Bulldogs will have earned their spot in the playoffs if they make a comeback after a one-year absence.
Our list of Georgia’s top five games in 2024 is as follows:
5. VS. CLEMSON (AUG. 31, ATLANTA)
Georgia is the early favorite at -13.5.
If, on opening weekend, Clemson does the unimaginable and upsets Georgia in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta as a double-digit underdog, then national rankings would be completely destroyed. As the likely preseason No. 1 over Ohio State, the Bulldogs have a history of winning these big-time openings. However, they will need to play well against a Dabo Swinney-coached squad that has some doubts going into the new season. Neither Clemson nor any other Power 4 club signed a transfer in recruiting cycle, making them the least favorite in the ACC going into the season.
Naturally, former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy believes there’s as much intrigue on the opposite side of the ball as there is coming into Georgia’s season opener.
“I believe that more questions than answers surround Georgia’s roster. Doesn’t imply that they won’t be excellent,” McElroy stated in a recent Always College Football podcast episode. “They will be outstanding. Coming into the season, this club is no worse than the second-ranked team in college football. Other than Ohio State, no team has more capable players on their roster. They are authentic.”
4. VS. November 16th, Tennessee
Early odds for Georgia were -15.
With 25 games remaining as of 2024, the Bulldogs own the longest ongoing winning streak in NCAA football. They haven’t lost at home since 2019 (South Carolina). Thanks to increased success under Smart, Athens is a top-5 environment in the country on gameday and has recently risen to the elite level in terms of pageantry. And as long as the Tennessee game ends up in the win column, this streak should keep going as this fall’s slate of home games against the competition is among the best.
Georgia has defeated the Vols seven times in a row, and if Josh Heupel’s squad comes into Athens with a few defeats, this might be a postseason elimination game of sorts for Tennessee. If Georgia’s trip to Ole Miss last week did not go as expected, the Bulldogs might have to deal with the remainder of a land-mined fill slate for this year’s squad.
3. In Ole Miss (November 9)
Early odds for Georgia were -7.
Give credit to Lane Kiffin. At the line of scrimmage against the Bulldogs, he’s attempting to cast aside the ghosts of the previous season following an amazing effort in acquiring talent through the transfer portal. After snatching the best defensive players from Florida and Texas A&M, the Rebels signed a few more players to start for them elsewhere. All of this for a team that just finished with 11 wins and only two losses in 2023, in Athens and Tuscaloosa. After Ole Miss’s crushing defeat by the Bulldogs, Kiffin blamed recruiting for the reason his squad was unable to defeat Georgia and Alabama.
“We must hire at a more competitive level. I take no responsibility. We need to improve as coaches,” Kiffin remarked. “At some time, regardless of those numbers, we signed a five-star player, and they signed a 24-star player. It (does) sort of come through at some time. We would need to hire more competently. Improve your recruiting efforts.”
Kiffin claimed his side was playing with “house money” and didn’t feel under any pressure to go between the hedges before to that prime-time matchup at Sanford. If the Rebels and Bulldogs finish in the top 10, as most predict, then the pressure might increase tenfold in November.
2. in Alabama on September 28
Early odds for Georgia were -5.
This is where we believe Georgia will face serious opposition for the first time this autumn, despite their 39-game winning streak during the regular season. For first-year Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer, this is a pivotal game that will shape Crimson Tide supporters’ perception of him. If Alabama loses to Georgia and, let’s say, LSU in November, that would be two missed opportunities for the Crimson Tide against rivals who aren’t named Auburn. This game affects the SEC race and has significant playoff implications.
Josh Pate, a colleague, raised an important issue earlier in the spring: has Georgia under Kirby Smart had the same level of success under prior coaching staff that the Crimson Tide achieved under Nick Saban? Although the Bulldogs had won two national titles, their loss in Atlanta last year still hurts a little since Georgia was probably going to win the championship for the third time in a row. That would have been recognized as one of the greatest runs in college football history and would have inspired true dynasty rumors.
TEXAS (OCT. 19) 1.
Early odds for Georgia were -2.
Two of the league’s most consensus predictions to make the College Football Playoffs this season are Georgia and Texas, who were very picky in the portal market after securing elite classes in the early phase. Get used to it: assuming recruiting trends hold true, especially if Alabama’s mighty train has experienced a few stalls since Nick Saban left, the Bulldogs and Longhorns should continue to compete for SEC supremacy for many years to come. While there are other programs that are gaining traction, those are the most evident and have the best chance of maintaining their success in the larger superconference.
Texas and Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers don’t think life in the SEC will be harder than it is in the Big 12. They hope to have an even better season than the one they had in 2023, when the Longhorns came within one play of the national championship game. Under Steve Sarkisian’s coaching, Texas has also won seven straight games at home.
This month, Ewers stated, “We take it one day at a time, but we’re all human and we understand what we want to accomplish,” on the RG3 and The Ones blog. “Obviously, the SEC title is on our minds, but we’ve also got the national championship game on January 20. We will hold ourselves to that goal and that is what we desire.”
