Making a Case for the Georgia Bulldogs from SEC Media Days

The Champs are in the house. It hits different here in Atlanta when Kirby Smart and his Dawgs roll into the College Football Hall of Fame. UGA fans are still in celebratory mode after winning their first national championship in 41 years. But, Kirby Smart and his team aren’t looking backward nor will they accept complacency.  

Happy Kentucky Takeover Day from Atlanta. I’m happy to be here with you for the third day thanks to our good friends at Morgan & Morgan. For over thirty years, Morgan & Morgan has helped hundreds of thousands of deserving clients recover over 13 billion dollars. Wow. That’s a lot of money. Did you know that on average, people who hire an attorney after a crash recover 3X times more than those who don’t? That’s a huge difference. For a free consultation, call DIAL POUND (#) LAW – That’s POUND L-A-W or 5-2-9 on your cell phone — 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Now, let’s talk about the Dawgs. 

Georgia won the title a year ago with a generational defense and a complimentary offense led by former walk-on quarterback Stetson Bennett. First of all, I apologize. I doubted that Smart’s Dawgs could win the big trophy with Bennett under center. I was wrong. For that, I am sorry. I won’t doubt him again. Respect.

Case For

A case for in 2022 was a case against in 2021. The aforementioned sixth-year QB1 Stetson Bennett IV rolled it back for an additional season. Bennett is steady; some may describe him as a game manager. I call Bennett a winner. The super senior quarterback completed 65% of his passes for 2862-yards and 29 touchdowns compared to just 7 interceptions last year. An underdog with a championship pedigree, Bennett is exactly what UGA needs in that locker room. 

Tight end Brock Bowers is special. The 6’4, 230-pound All-American exploded onto the national stage after grabbing 56 passes for 882-yards and 13 scores last season. Bowers is an elite talent; a sophomore slump is unexpected. He is joined in the TE room by 6’7, 270-pound Darnell Washington and Arik Gilbert. That trio, if Gilbert actually plays this season, constructs the most formidable tight end room in all of college football. 

Offensive coordinator Todd Monken was terrific during Georgia’s title run. The purposeful play caller will have two running backs with experience and explosive traits. Kenny McIntosh and Kendall Milton are in line to become the next in line of a long series of explosive rushers in Athens. UGA should also be sturdy along the offensive line. Preseason All-SEC tackle Broderick Jones will play alongside returning starters Sedrick Van Pran (Center) and junior Warren McClendon (Tackle). Returning receivers Adonai Mitchell, Ladd McConkey, Kearis Jackson, and Dominick Blaylock pack a punch when paired up with an elite TE group and a veteran quarterback. Jermaine Burton transferred to Alabama but Georgia should be ok at that position. 

We’ll get to the part where Georgia lost a ton of defenders to the NFL in a minute. But first, Kirby Smart has recruited extremely well so the defensive cupboard isn’t exactly bare. A pair of All-Americans will lead the Bulldog defense in 2022. Defensive tackle Jalen Carter may have been the best player on a stacked unit from last season. The 6’3, 310-pound junior accumulated 37 stops, 8.5 TFL, and 3 sacks in 2021. All-American cornerback Kelee Ringo was clutch in key games and is considered a lockdown defender. All-SEC linebacker Nolan Smith is also back and will be counted on for experience in what could be an inexperienced but highly talented defense.

Case Against

Georgia clawed for 41 years to finally win a national championship. Defending that title may be more difficult than the proverbial climb. Fifteen Bulldogs heard their names called on Draft Night. Replacing that much talent will be a difficult task regardless of how well Kirby Smart has recruited. The defense was hit the hardest via attrition. Five Bulldog defenders were drafted in the first round alone. That’s an incredible number. Also gone is coordinator Dan Lanning who is now the head coach at Oregon. Longtime SEC veteran defensive mind Will Muschamp and Glenn Shumann are now co-coordinators which should ease the transition. Jimmies and Joes dominate college football; UGA will be a new team in 2022. 

Verdict

The schedule sets up nicely for a rebuild. The Dawgs open against Oregon in Atlanta which could be a tricky first game against their former defensive coordinator. Four manageable road games include South Carolina, Mizzou, Mississippi State, and Kentucky. A late November trip to Kroger Field is already sold out and could be a meaningful game for both teams. It also could be Georgia’s most difficult test of the season. 

Kirby Smart’s seventh season in Athens could be considered a rebuilding year. I’m not buying it. Neither is he. A sixth-year starting quarterback and a room full of talented offensive skill players playing behind a stout offensive line mean that UGA may have to outscore (I hate that term) opponents instead of winning on defense. In other words, it may look different but expect a bunch of Ws for this Georgia team. The Dawgs could very well finish with another perfect regular season record with a low estimate being 10-2. 

What Does All This Mean for Kentucky?

Quite a bit actually. Kentucky hosts Georgia on November 19 which is later in the season than usual. This could act in Kentucky’s favor. Depending on which talking head you listen to, that matchup could have ramifications for the East title. Some have the Cats second in the East, others have them as low as fourth or fifth. Outside Bama, UK played Georgia tougher than any other conference opponent. Pray for a cold night game in Lexington. 

Head Coach’s Best Quote

Q. When it comes to NIL, how does your program approach it? Is there anything you think needs to change about how it’s structured in college football?

KIRBY SMART: “Yeah, the pivotal question, right? Everybody waits for that one for all the conversation. 

The NIL program we have in place, we have a Classic City Collective run by Matt Hibbs who does a tremendous job. It’s built on being sustainable. I don’t think what’s going on in college football right now at some places is sustainable, meaning, Can you do that year in and year out and repeat that? Can you honor the commitment that some people are trying to make to kids to get them to go to their school? It’s not good for college football, what’s out there. 

What’s good is NIL is good on the basis of what NIL is based on, okay? For Dan Jackson to be a walk-on from Gainesville, Georgia, come in and get an opportunity to earn money for his education, that is good. For a young man that has a father that’s on dialysis in south Georgia and he can’t support his father unless he goes back and works or he gets NIL, that is good. 

We have 95 players right now with NIL deals that are on our roster. That’s incredible, the depth of that. There’s so much good there. 

It’s the guardrails. It’s the parameters that we need to protect our game. Not only protect our game, guys, it’s protect young men, okay? 

We may have had the highest-paid defensive lineman last year in NIL in Jordan Davis. We had the highest-paid tight end in Brock Bowers. Kelee Ringo I would argue is probably one of the highest-paid corners there is in NIL. So NIL can be a good thing and they can learn to manage money at a young age. 

But to use it as an inducement to get a young man to go to your school is not good for anybody or the game. I don’t have the answer for how to guardrail that, but NIL has been good to Georgia and it’s been good to our players and it will continue to be.”

Q. Circle back to Stetson. You mentioned about how you think he’s one of the least respected good players. Looking more as a leader, can you speak to what differences, if any, you see in him as a leader now as opposed to when he first stepped into the starting job?

KIRBY SMART: “Yeah, I think now he has a little more – what’s the right word – support because he is the guy. It’s hard for players around you to have conviction you’re the guy if you’re not the starter. He wasn’t the starter at this time last year, at this time two years ago. He started intermittently throughout two years ago, then once he won the job, I think he’s created a little bit of momentum with our players, our skill players, because there’s not a doubt there. 

They understand he knows the system. He can get them the ball. He can throw the ball vertically down the field, deep comebacks, he can scramble and make a play with his feet. I think they value that. 

That’s given him a little bit more credibility, which credibility to me is earned, right? He earned that by the way he played at the end of the year and most of the season. He continues to do that the way he leads out there on seven-on-sevens.”

Remember our friends at Morgan & Morgan. For a free consultation, call DIAL POUND (#) LAW – That’s POUND L-A-W or 5-2-9 on your cell phone — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.