Paul Finebaum expects to learn a lot about Georgia over final stretch of regular season
The final stretch of Georgia’s schedule will reveal a lot about the team, so says Paul Finebaum. With four games left, the Bulldogs get three ranked opponents in a row before a rivalry game with Georgia Tech on November 25.
First up, it’s No. 14 Missouri coming to town and the Tigers sport a 7-1 record. It’s surprising, but it’s no accident, it’s a good football team.
Afterwards, Finebaum noted No. 11 Ole Miss and No. 19 Tennessee waiting in the wings to try and knock off the two-time defending champions.
“Not to just add one more to the pie but assuming they survive that then they go to Knoxville, which I don’t know what to make out of that game,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show. “Because Tennessee still has to deal with Missouri and a few other folks … there’s something eerie about late November in Knoxville, assuming you’re trying to get yourself to Atlanta, which they probably will have already punched their ticket by then.”
Tennessee made it very interesting last season. But it remains to be seen which Volunteers team shows up in a couple of weeks.
First, Georgia has to play Missouri, which only has one loss: a shootout one to LSU. Since then, the Tigers haven’t been stopped.
“But yeah, so Missouri is a mystery,” Finebaum said. “I mean, I have friends in the industry, analysts who say Missouri is not that great. I happen to think they’re good. I’m impressed with what Eli Drinkwitz is doing but so far. They have a nice win against Kentucky. In Lexington. I think a lot of people will have wins against Kentucky in Lexington by the end of this year. And they beat Kansas State on a 61 yard field goal.”
Georgia has quite the schedule down the stretch
Georgia comes off a rivalry win over Florida, the first of a tough stretch to end the season. But, Kirby Smart and crew are that much closer to taking the next step at a three-peat.
“We came in with the idea of focusing on the mindset of mission, team, me,” Smart said postgame. “We wanted to put the mission first, the team first and me last. We had a lot of guys do that today. We knew if we did it together, we’d put ourselves out there, and we knew we’d play winning football.
“I feel this team is improving; we’re getting better but we’re still not where we need to be. But I’m proud of the competitors that went out and fought today for our university. I was proud of our fans, they supported us even though we did not start the way we wanted to. But we responded and played well. We were able to control the line of scrimmage, which ultimately is the difference in this conference. If you can win the line of scrimmage, you’ve got a chance.”