Breaking down why Georgia's 2023 schedule looks tougher than first anticipated

No. 1 Georgia is still No. 1 Georgia in a lot of ways. Still, through the Bulldog’s 5-0 start, DawgsHQ’s Jake Rowe has seen some issues that the nation’s top team must clean up ahead of the back half of their schedule.

Rowe spoke about his view on Georgia’s year so far during an appearance on ‘Andy Staples On3’ on Sunday. To him, most of their problems currently stem from a new, younger roster. It’s also because they’re still battling some early injury matters.

“I don’t think it’s complacency,” explained Rowe. “I think it’s youth combined with some injuries. They’ve just had a hard time kind of finding continuity throughout this season, throughout the preseason.”

“They’re starting to get healthy. But they’re starting to get healthy with guys who haven’t done a whole lot, whether it’s they haven’t done a whole lot in their career or they haven’t done a whole lot lately in terms of practice, in terms of getting integrated into this team,” Rowe added.

Whatever the questions may be, some are going to need answers here soon. Georgia has struggled early in their first two real matchups, a pair of wins over South Carolina and Auburn. With that being the case, Rowe wants to see more out of them before some other challenging opponents come up on the slate as early as next weekend.

“The schedule is going to get tougher, though. All of a sudden, this schedule that wasn’t very good? And, honestly, I still don’t know how great it is. But Kentucky is going to be ranked, Missouri is going to be ranked. Ole Miss got a big win last night,” Rowe counted off. “Florida? That was a poor showing yesterday. But Tennessee seems to be finding a little something after that loss to Florida.”

“All of a sudden? The schedule looks, with the way Georgia is playing, like, ‘Hey, if you run this table? That’s going to be incredible,'” said Rowe. “If you get out of it with less than two losses? That’ll actually be pretty good with the way you’re playing.”

Through an undefeated start, Georgia has posted both a Top-15 offense and a Top-15 defense. That’s nothing to complain too much about considering all things.

Still, with what’s left on their schedule, Rowe wants to see the ‘Dawgs take the next step and get back to dominating teams in their own fashion like they have in recent years.

“It’s a weird team right now, Andy. I have a lot of confidence in them finding a way to win ball games. I have a lot of confidence in them not melting down, going away, or going down their leg or anything like that,” Rowe said. “But I don’t have any confidence in them just kind of grabbing a team up and saying, ‘Alright! This is what I want and I’m going to make you do it.'”