Can anyone other than Georgia beat Georgia? Four teams that will try
The final memory seared into our brains from last season was No. 1 Georgia’s resounding, relentless, insert-your-ugly-adjective 65-7 beatdown of No. 3 TCU in the national championship game. It was the largest win by a team in any bowl game in major college football history.
The Bulldogs finished 15-0 in 2022. They open the season with four straight home games. And they’re reloading with the second-best incoming recruiting class, trailing only Alabama.
So … who can stop them?
“When they’re as talented as they are, as well-coached, they’d have to beat themselves at times with some of us,” said one SEC head coach.
“Well, Alabama can,” another SEC head coach said. “Missouri should have. The best thing that can beat Georgia is Georgia, but a fast-paced offense like Tennessee would have some type of chance. Alabama. Obviously Ohio State. After that, probably not a lot. But I think the best opponent Georgia would have is Georgia not playing well because they’re that dominating.”
If the Bulldogs are going to win the East again, they have to win at Tennessee on Nov. 18. And if they’re going to win the SEC again, they’ll likely have to go through Alabama or LSU in the conference championship game. Georgia beat LSU 50-30 last year to win the SEC title.
“We scored enough points, but we couldn’t match up physically yet,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said. “You look at the other teams, obviously Ohio State had enough of that to take them right down to the wire. Teams are building towards that model that Kirby’s put together. And he watched Nick [Saban] do it, making a major pivot towards scoring more points and being more productive offensively, all the while they still had to have that physicality. If you have a flaw in any one of those areas where you’re not physical enough on the offensive line or the defensive line, and you can’t be explosive, then you can’t beat Georgia.”
The list of teams capable of it is short, but it exists.
The four teams are listed from most to least likely team capable of beating the Bulldogs.
Alabama
Nick Saban’s record vs. Kirby Smart: 4-1
Last meeting: Georgia won 33-18 in the CFP National Championship Game on Jan. 10, 2022.
How they do it this year: The only way Georgia and Alabama would face each other this year is in the SEC championship, so this scenario assumes they win their respective divisions. What Alabama can’t do is continue its 2022 trend of penalties and turnovers. Both teams are searching for a new starting quarterback, but no matter who has earned the job for Nick Saban, he has been effective against the blitz. This could be an advantage for the Tide because Georgia has a tendency to blitz a lot when facing elite quarterbacks, and according to ESPN’s Stats & Information Group, under Saban, Alabama has the best QBR when blitzed in the FBS. In Georgia’s two close wins last year, against Missouri and Kentucky, the Bulldogs only attempted four passes over 20 yards, and this also favors the Tide. According to ESPN’s Stats & Info, opposing teams only completed 26% of their deep passes against the Tide last year — 15th best in the FBS.
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It’s August and no games have been played, but that’s not keeping ESPN’s college football reporters from predicting the 12 schools that will make up the College Football Playoff beginning in December.
Ohio State won the inaugural 12-team bracket last season, despite starting as the No. 8 seed, demonstrating that the playoff truly gives new life to any team that gains entry.
There’s a slight alteration to the format this year. The tournament will still comprise the top five conference champions and seven at-large schools. But the top four seeds — and the first-round bye that comes with each of those seeds — will no longer go to the four highest-ranked conference champions (last season that was Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State). This season the committee has moved to a straight seeding model, so the four highest-ranked schools in the committee’s final top 12 will get the top four seeds.
Ahead of Week 0, here are the slates our reporters picked. Let the chase begin:
Andrea Adelson: 1. Clemson 2. Penn State 3. Texas 4. LSU 5. Georgia 6. Ohio State 7. Notre Dame 8. Miami 9. Alabama 10. Iowa State 11. Nebraska 12. Boise State
Kyle Bonagura: 1. Texas 2. Penn State 3. Ohio State 4. Clemson 5. Georgia 6. Notre Dame 7. Alabama 8. Oregon 9. LSU 10. Arizona State 11. Miami 12. Boise State
Bill Connelly: 1. Penn State 2. Alabama 3. Texas 4. Ohio State 5. Georgia 6. Notre Dame 7. Texas A&M 8. Clemson 9. Oregon 10. Boise State 11. Miami 12. Kansas State
Heather Dinich: 1. Penn State, 2. Clemson, 3. Texas 4. LSU 5. Georgia 6. Ohio State 7. Notre Dame 8. Alabama 9. Miami 10. Oregon 11. Kansas State 12. Boise State
David Hale: 1. Ohio State 2. Texas 3. Clemson 4. Penn State 5. Notre Dame 6. Georgia 7. Oregon 8. LSU 9. Texas A&M 10. Kansas State 11. Miami 12. Toledo
Eli Lederman: 1. Penn State 2. Texas 3. Clemson 4. Ohio State 5. Notre Dame 6. Alabama 7. Oregon 8. Georgia 9. Arizona State 10. LSU 11. Miami 12. Boise State
Max Olson: 1. Texas. 2. Penn State. 3. Notre Dame. 4. Clemson. 5. Alabama. 6. Oregon. 7. Georgia. 8. Ohio State. 9. Texas Tech. 10. LSU. 11. Utah. 12. Boise State
Adam Rittenberg: 1. Texas 2. Penn State 3. Clemson 4. Georgia 5. Alabama 6. Ohio State 7. Notre Dame 8. Oregon 9. Miami 10. Iowa State 11. Boise State 12. Illinois
Mark Schlabach: 1. Texas 2. Clemson 3. Penn State 4. Georgia 5. Ohio State 6. Alabama 7. Notre Dame 8. Oregon 9. Miami 10. LSU 11. Arizona State 12. Boise State
Jake Trotter: 1. Texas, 2. Clemson, 3. Penn State, 4. LSU, 5. Ohio State, 6. Notre Dame, 7. Georgia, 8. Oregon, 9. Illinois, 10. South Carolina, 11. Texas Tech, 12. Tulane
Paolo Uggetti: 1. Ohio State, 2. Georgia, 3. Texas 4. Penn State 5. Notre Dame 6. Clemson 7. Oregon 8. LSU 9. Arizona State 10. Miami 11. South Carolina 12. Boise State
Dave Wilson: 1. Texas 2. Penn State 3. Clemson 4. Ohio State 5. Georgia 6. Notre Dame 7. Alabama 8. Oregon 9. LSU 10. Arizona State 11. Miami 12. Boise State
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