Cole Cubelic shares big expectations for Georgia Bulldogs in 2024

Hundreds of media personalities will gather in Dallas, Texas this week for the unofficial kickoff the the College Football season in the SEC. With Texas and Oklahoma joining the league, joining the likes of Georgia, Alabama and several other traditional powers, there are more voices in the room.

Still among the loudest of them when it comes to the conference though is Cole Cubelic, who played at Auburn from 1996 to 2001 and has covered football in the Southeast in some capacity since 2009. So, when Cubelic speaks about Georgia and expects the Bulldogs to be among the nation’s best in 2024, there’s some weight to his words.

“I think they’re the leaders of the pack for, maybe not only the Southeastern Conference this year – definitely that – but maybe neck and neck with Ohio State is just the leaders across all of College Football. That’s kind of what I think about Georgia,” Cubelic said during a recent breakdown of the Bulldogs.

Offensive Assessment

Why is it he’s so high on Georgia’s chances for success this season? There’s a lot of reasons, but it starts on the offensive side of the ball where UGA brings to the table an attack featuring a Heisman Trophy favorite and versatile weapons around him.

“Can that offense actually be better than it was a year ago? I think there’s a really good chance, and that’s without a Brock Bowers,” Cubelic said. “If you want to go two-back, you’ve got the capability to do that. You’ve got the capability to motion to two-back with Dillon Bell from wide receiver back into the backfield or start in two-back and motion him out and now you’re not in a two running back set anymore technically. Then you have multiple tight ends that you can run in and go 12, 13 and move those guys around. Mike Bobo is going to have an encyclopedia of a playbook just for his formations and personnel groupings he’s going to be able to utilize.”

“… I don’t know who’s featured in this offense outside of the quarterback (Carson Beck) to be perfectly honest with you,” he continued. “I think that group’s going to be good enough to feature one of these backs or multiple backs, I think the tight ends are good enough to have big years if he wanted them to depending on how the defense is going to play you, you could go Dillon Bell, Dom Lovett, London Humphreys, Colbie Young, Rara Thomas, the ability to draw things up and feature things and design things for a guy if you wanted to is going to be all over the place for this Georgia offense.”

Cubelic added thoughts on individuals too. Running back Trevor Etienne adds elements to the offense that haven’t been there in recent years – possibly since D’Andre Swift was in the Bulldog backfield. Meanwhile, the wide receivers have the potential to be tops in the country.

“You bring in Trevor Etienne who went for 753 (yards) at Florida last year, 8 rushing touchdowns, has a little bit more juice. From what I’m told during spring practice, and you watch what he able to do with the Gators last year, he’s been an upgrade over what they had,” Cubelic said. “They’re sort of juice back or the back with a little bit extra was Dillon Bell, technically a wide receiver. Other than that, you were working with grinders, guys that can get downhill, added physicality. Now, you’ll be able to take high percentage plays and turn those into explosives. That’s something I don’t really think Georgia had the capability to do last year, specifically from the running back position.”

“You have all the different options of types of receivers you want, guys that can line up in different places and do different things. Ladd McConkey was valuable last year. You lose him, that’s okay … It is as deep and versatile of a wide receiver corp as you’re going to find in College Football,” he continued. “I understand there are a couple of other good ones. I’ve seen a lot of these wide receiver lists and I haven’t seen Georgia at the top of any of them … You’re talking about guys that have proven it in this league and other Power Five levels of College Football. They can flat out play, but nobody wants to talk about this Georgia group as potentially the top wide receiver corps in College Football, and I just wonder why.”

Defensive Breakdown

Of course it’s Georgia we’re talking about though, so the defense should be strong too. Kirby Smart has recruited at a level that assures that.

“I think you’ve got good numbers in this secondary. As many top end guys? Maybe not, but I think the first level of the defense is going to be a step ahead of where it was last year and I think the second level of the defense is going to be a spot where you can potentially lean on,” Cubelic said. “I think with what you have off the ball, what you have collectively off the edge – off the edge I think will be a little bit better this year, interior has a chance to be a little bit better this year and I think off the ball linebacker with another year and offseason under their belt has a chance to be better than it was a season ago. So if you can lean on that part a little bit more, the secondary doesn’t have to be as good as it was, but you still have Malaki Starks back who’s one of the best safeties in College Football, if not the best safety in College Football. Leadership, intangibles, a guy that can do it all. He’s going to be a guy Georgia needs to be a real player on this defense again this year.”

“You’ve got a Georgia defense with high level stars, a team that has 13 players on defense drafted in 2022 and 2023 but over the last three years has been the No. 1 scoring defense, No. 1 third down defense and No. 2 total defense. That group isn’t going away. It’s not going to be any different,” he added. “There’s enough staff continuity there to hold over from what Georgia’s been the last few years, even though you’ve had to replace a couple of guys and obviously the recruiting hasn’t slowed down. You get an elite recruiter with T-Rob (Travaris Robinson). Muschamp goes off the field, but he’s still there as an analyst so you get the parts with him you were benefitting from the most anyway.”

Overall Expectations

Combine all the pieces Cubelic’s impressed with and it’s easy to understand why his expectations are to see Georgia make a return trip to the College Football Playoffs. The Bulldogs have a tough schedule, but they’ve got the pieces to compete.

“We said last week Texas maybe did the best job of filling their voids through the portal with not only players of need and style of players that were leaving and bringing in very similar players to those positions. Georgia I feel like did a very similar job at that and added some power at a couple of different spots where I think you’re going to look at it and say, ‘Man, that might not be a massive loss after all,” Cubelic said. “Georgia’s going to be in the Playoff. How much of a Playoff run can they make? Some is going to have to do with health. Some may have to do with matchups once you get there, but I don’t look across College Football and see a ton of teams that are going to give Georgia fits because of how they play, their style of play or who exactly they have to offer up.”

“I think this is a team that should be the favorite to win the National Championship, even over Ohio State because Ohio State doesn’t have a quarterback returning in that system. I don’t think right now, Ohio State collectively, on both sides of the ball, is as good in the trenches as Georgia is, so Georgia is my favorite to win the title,” he added. “The schedule is tough, yes, but because of where we’re going in the 12-team Playoff, the schedule is more forgiving anyway. It was part of that process of having to retrain our brain in different ways to look at a season. ‘Oh, it’s a difficult schedule.’ Alright, are they going to be able to get in? Because if they get in, they’re going to be a problem.”