Georgia prominently featured in ESPN's continued preview of 2024 season

ESPN has done a few way-too-early preview pieces for the 2024 college football season already, the latest of which were released this week. By surprise to just about nobody, Georgia was prominently featured in the outlet’s ranking of most important games and the All-American look ahead.

According to Heather Dinich, two of the Bulldogs’ regular season games are expected to be defining contests for the College Football Playoffs. While there is an expanded field to 12 teams, Georgia’s trips to Texas (No. 1 – October 19th) and Alabama (No. 2 – September 28th) certainly would’ve been important regardless.

“The committee reinforced its belief that past accomplishments don’t affect current ranking when it excluded back-to-back national champion Georgia from the final top four in 2023. The Bulldogs had one loss in 28 games — by three points to Alabama in the SEC title game — but dropped from No. 1 to No. 6 on Selection Day because they didn’t win their conference title in a season packed with contenders who did. That’s why this trip to Texas will resonate through Selection Day,” Dinich wrote. “It would be viewed as a quality road win in the eyes of the committee, and it will influence who might play in the SEC title game. Georgia has advanced to the SEC title game in recent years in part because the SEC East hasn’t been the most challenging side of the league. With divisions scrapped, the game against Texas is the start of the evidence showing how much more difficult Georgia’s climb will be in the new SEC.”

“In addition to the importance in the conference race — and what could be another quality road win against a ranked opponent for Georgia (see No. 1) — it will also reveal where Bama coach Kalen DeBoer is with the program in his first season after taking over for retired legend Nick Saban,” she continued, moving on to the Alabama matchup. “September will be a very difficult month for Georgia. The Dawgs play two true road games — at Kentucky and Bama — and play a season-opening neutral-site game against Clemson. This matchup could foreshadow the SEC championship game, where the two teams have met three times since 2018. If so, the loser of this game will have a chance to impress the selection committee by avenging its regular-season loss. That would also allow for the loser of the SEC title game to claim a regular-season win against the eventual conference champion, helping both teams to earn playoff bids, which also happened in 2021.”

Georgia lost its last matchup against both Texas and Alabama, the most recent of which came in the 2023 season. As a result of a 27-24 loss in the SEC Championship Game to the Crimson Tide, UGA fell from the No. 1 spot in the rankings and was left on the outside looking in at the national championship picture. Meanwhile, both Texas and Alabama made the Playoff – falling in the semifinals – but enter big years for each respectively as the Longhorns look to make a statement in the SEC while the Crimson Tide are trying to find an identity for their program without Nick Saban at the helm any more.

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To win games like those, players are important, and needless to say, Georgia has a roster more than ready to compete for a championship again. Three Bulldogs were included on Chris Low’s list of All-Americans as Kirby Smart’s squad – ranked No. 1 in all the way-too-early polls – comes in tied for second-most in the country. Here’s what Low had to say about the Bulldogs he included…

QB Carson Beck: It was just two years ago that Stetson Bennett was a Heisman Trophy finalist, something nobody would have foreseen at the start of the season. Now it’s Beck’s turn. He has the size (6-foot-4) and arm strength to carve apart defenses from the pocket and finished last season with the fourth-highest quarterback grade by Pro Football Focus. If Beck improves as much in 2024 as he did this past season, he’ll be right in the middle of the Heisman conversation.

OG Tate Ratledge: Ratledge passed up the NFL draft to return to Georgia for his senior season, and the Bulldogs should again have one of the best offensive lines in the country. The 6-6, 310-pound Ratledge has made 27 starts at right guard over the past two seasons and was a second-team AP All-American in 2023, when he didn’t allow any sacks and let in just two QB hurries.

NOTE: Ratledge’s fellow offensive linemen Earnest Greene (OT) and Dylan Fairchild (OG) were second-team selections for Low

S Malaki Starks: There are a lot of important pieces to Kirby Smart’s defense at Georgia, and Starks has been one of the cornerstones each of the past two seasons. A starter since he was a freshman, Starks was a consensus first-team All-American last season. He was fourth on the Bulldogs with 52 total tackles and also had three interceptions.

Georgia opens the season against ACC opponent Clemson at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on August 31st. The schedule also features dates with Ole Miss (Oxford – November 9), Tennessee (Athens – November 16) and Georgia Tech (Athens – November 30) – all three of whom have been included in a way-too-early ranking. Rivals Florida (Jacksonville – November 2) and Auburn (Athens – October 5) make appearances along with the aforementioned games (Texas and Alabama), Tennessee Tech (Athens – September 7), Kentucky (Lexington – September 14), Mississippi State (Athens – October 12) and UMass (Athens – November 23).