Despite having who many consider to be the best head coach in college football, with Kirby Smart. It seems the bulletin board material continues to be given to the Georgia Bulldogs as they are now under 100 days away from the 2025 season.
One of the latest examples of potential extra motivation for the Bulldogs came from ON3’s Ari Wasserman. The college football national analyst unveiled his projections for this coming season’s College Football Playoff.
He has the Bulldogs making the 12-team field as the No. 8 seed, which would have them host a playoff game. Yet, Wasserman doesn’t have that playing too much of an advantage for Georgia as he projects Oregon and Dan Lanning to get the better of the Bulldogs.
“Go back to Sept. 3, 2022. It was Dan Lanning‘s first game at Oregon. The Ducks played Georgia and were blown completely off the field. It wasn’t even competitive,” Wasserman writes. “But a lot has changed since then and Oregon has closed the immense talent gap that used to exist between itself and the best programs. The Ducks have spent the entire summer grueling over what happened against the Buckeyes in the Rose Bowl. In another shot at a top-tier opponent, Oregon gets over the hump and the Bulldogs suffer another early CFP exit.”
The aforementioned season-opening game of the 2022 season was quite the kickoff to what would be Georgia’s second straight national championship-winning season.
Led by Stetson Bennett, Georgia amassed 571 total yards, as the Heisman finalist threw for 368 yards and two touchdowns while completing 25 of his 31 passes. He would rush for eight yards and another score in the 49-3 win.
To Wasserman’s credit, a lot has changed indeed. Bennett and many others are no longer on the team, as there are very few players remaining from that 2022 team.
Meanwhile, for Oregon, Lanning helped the Ducks capture their first conference championship since 2020, by winning the Big 10 in their first season in the conference. And while that did secure them the No. 1 seed in last season’s College Football Playoff, it would not spare them from the embarrassing 41-21 loss in the Rose Bowl to Ohio State.
While another early exit from the playoffs would be disappointing for Georgia. Making the 12-team field would still be a feat considering all that the Bulldogs are having to replace this season.
As Smart noted, they entered spring practice with the least amount of players on the roster with three or more spring practices under their belt than they have in the Smart era. They had 13 more players selected in the NFL Draft and will have youth and inexperience at several positions.
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