Paul Finebaum gives 'very nervous nod' to Georgia winning College Football Playoff

Paul Finebaum knows the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff is fraught with pitfalls for each participating program. It’s for that reason that the SEC Network host is hesitantly hitching his wagon to the No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs to ultimately win its third CFP National Championship in the last four seasons.

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“It’s a very nervous nod toward Georgia, … and I realize the Carson Beck situation hovers over them, but I still feel like they have a good path,” Finebaum said Wednesday morning on ESPN’s First Take.

The second-seeded Bulldogs (11-2) have a favorable first-round bye after winning the SEC Championship over Texas (11-2), and faces Friday night’s winner between No. 7-seed Notre Dame (11-1) and No. 10-seed Indiana (11-1) in the Sugar Bowl national quarterfinal on New Year’s Day from New Orleans.

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo picked SEC runner-up Longhorns, while Stephen A. Smith went all chalk.

“Based on it right now, I think the national champioship is going to come down to Georgia and Oregon,” Smith added. “I’m going to go with the 1 and 2 seeds right now.”

Of course, Georgia isn’t without its question marks entering the Playoffs. Especially at quarterback, where sophomore backup Gunner Stockton is expected to take over starting duties from an injured Beck, who suffered a UCL/elbow injury in the first half of the SEC Championship game.

Kirby Smart explains how Georgia’s offense changes with Gunner Stockton

The good news in Athens is that the coaching staff has a lot of confidence in the sophomore quarterback.

“Well I think his strengths are somewhat different than Carson’s, obviously,” head coach Kirby Smart said last week. “But we’ve known that. There’s not a game we don’t go into that we don’t have a plan for Gunner if he were to have to play. I mean when he’s your backup quarterback he’s got to be ready to play.”

Stockton took over and performed admirably in the second half and overtime of the SEC Championship Game, though he wasn’t asked to do too much. He finished 12-of-16 passing for 71 yards, though he did throw one costly interception. He also ran for eight yards.

It’s clear the plan will be slightly tweaked for him.

“He functions and operates really well within our current offense,” Smart said. “We don’t think we have to change much in terms of that. He does give us the capability of doing some different things with his athleticism. I thought Mike (Bobo) and those guys did a good job using that. The team has a lot of confidence in Gunner. He’s very smart, very intelligent.”

Thomas Goldkamp contributed to this report.