On3 Roundtable: Destroying the weak-scheduling narrative for Georgia

DawgsHQ co-owner and publisher Rusty Mansell does not understand the argument that Georgia has been benefitting from a weak schedule during its two-year championship run.

He joined JD PicKell on On3 Roundtable this week to discuss multiple topics, including the narrative around the Bulldogs schedule. In Mansell’s mind, there’s only a debate about this because of a decision that was out of Georgia’s control.

“Listen, if Georgia plays Oklahoma this year, there’s zero discussion,” Mansell said. “There’s zero about their schedule. Guess who took that game away from them? The SEC. You can’t go to Norman. Georgia would have been in Norman, Oklahoma, week two. We’d probably all talk about that game all summer. They don’t have it. They also played the number one team in the nation at one point last year, Tennessee. They craved them up pretty good. They played Ohio State. They beat Ohio State. We all know what they did to TCU. They played LSU. They beat LSU.”

Oklahoma and Georgia first agreed to a home-and-home series in 2019. The first game of the series was to be played in 2023 in Norman while the Bulldogs would host in 2031.

But with the Sooners soon coming to the SEC, the conference told Georgia — as well as Tennessee, who also had a game agreement with Oklahoma — to cancel the contest.

The Bulldogs are now playing Ball State instead of the Sooners on Sept. 9, 2023.

Georgia has three of its biggest rivalry games all on the road this season, in addition to playing Florida at the neutral location of TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville.

Auburn hosts the Bulldogs at the end of September on Sept. 30. Georgia then ends the season with a game at Tennessee — which could have major SEC East and College Football Playoff implications — before ending the year at Georgia Tech.

The biggest home game on the slate could be Georgia’s game against Ole Miss, which will be held one week before the contest versus the Volunteers.

However, the schedule is not a murder’s row of opponents. In addition to playing Ball State in September, Georgia also faces some weaker opponents in UT Martin and UAB.

“There’s some games at Georgia, especially the month of September — it’s not great,” Mansell said. “I’m not gonna sit here and beat around the bush. But at the end of the day, when Georgia plays what I consider a really good team or an elite team, they beat them all lately and that includes Alabama.”