Welcome to the Deadspin 25, a college football poll that strives to be more democratic and less useless than every other preseason poll. Leading up to the college football season kickoff, we will give you previews of the 25 teams that you, the readers, voted to be most worthy of writing about. Now, No. 25 Georgia.
Pour one out for Mark Richt. The whole line about how most programs would love a 10-win season has been dutifully typed so many times it pains me to bring it up; the fact is Richt was not bringing home SEC titles, and after a while a bar has to be cleared, no matter how high it’s been set. Enter Kirby Smart.
The former Alabama defensive coordinator will head into his first season as head coach with a roster brimming with talent. Even the positions with unproven talent, like his soon-to-be new starting quarterback, boasts the best possible talent a new coach could ask for. All he has to do is groom a new quarterback, piece together an unproven front seven, and somehow keep at least 22 of his players out of trouble for an entire season.
Greyson Lambert has been around for a while now, or at least he has in my formerly ACC-dominated timeline. After going nowhere at Virginia, Lambert wised up and made the jump to Athens, where he gradually improved his accuracy and carved out a simple role as a game manager. He put together some solid outings, even setting an NCAA record last year with a 24-of-25 performance; the issue is, his best days tend to come against bad teams like South Carolina, and are rarely accompanied by touchdowns. Last season, Lambert tossed just 12 scores in 12 games. The silver lining is the season before—while playing for the Cavaliers, he threw 10 touchdowns to 11 interceptions; while his scoring only increased by two touchdowns, his turnovers dropped from 11 to two.
Here’s the thing: Kirby Smart or offensive coordinator Jim Chaney probably don’t want to field a game manager if they don’t have to. There’s nothing promising about a quarterback who can lead your offense to a combined 12 points in back-to-back games after the star tailback goes down. That’s where Jacob Eason comes in. Eason, a freshman quarterback, was the highest ranked quarterback recruit in his class and comes in with proven arm strength and accuracy. This guy is already having the title of savior thrust upon him (as if Georgia was wallowing at the bottom of the league) and will more than likely receive periodic starting reps before he inevitably wins the job.
Eason won’t have the luxury of throwing to former Georgia great Malcolm Mitchell, now with the New England Patriots. Instead, he will have to work with sophomore Terry Godwin and senior Reggie Davis, as well as junior Isaiah McKenzie, who has a proven knack for scoring when given some open space—he’s found the end zone five times in two years on punt and kickoff return duties. Javon Wims is another player that could find his way onto the field given both his experience at the junior college level and the fact that at 6-foot-4. He is one of the few big targets the Bulldogs will have at the receiver position.
Freshman Isaac Nauta, the top-rated tight end in his class, will join returning starter junior Jeb! Blazevich and sophomore Jackson Harris in a deep rotation of talented tight ends. Nauta is expected to make an immediate impact—the early enrollee made his presence felt in the spring game, with six catches for 57 yards and a touchdown.
The Bulldogs’ offensive line loses John Theus and Kolton Houston, but will add experience with senior transfer Tyler Catalina and sophomore Pat Allen. The tackle spots are still competitive, but none of the three other players Georgia has competing for the job—Greg Pyke, Kendall Baker, and Isaiah Wynn—have spent a full season at the position, so there will be a learning curve for the team’s exterior linemen should Catalina and Allen not lock their spots down.
Georgia’s backfield, a place with plenty of experienced talent, will have an excellent shot to be the best in the nation this season. Oh, sorry, forgot to add “when healthy.”
The 1-2 punch of Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, who filled in admirably for his fellow running back after Chubb’s knee buckled last October, could be a devastating combo. Michel is slimmer than Chubb and doesn’t possess the same highlight-reel run ability, but like Chubb, he rarely goes down on first contact and has excellent eyes out of the backfield. Unfortunately, Michel broke his forearm in an ATV accident in July and will likely not appear until Week 3 at the earliest. Chubb is still recovering from a brutal knee injury suffered last October. Until they return, the Bulldogs will have to make do with senior Brendan Douglas, who carried the ball just 36 times last year. With the running back situation touch-and-go to start the season, Smart told The Macon Telegraph he will likely go with the quarterback with the best arm (see: Eason) to start the season.
Chubb has Heisman-level capabilities and Georgia fans have a hand down their pants before you can finish saying “Jacob Eason,” but the main concern of those rooting on Georgia should be its front seven.The unit lost nearly every starter from last season, and will head into the first two games without Jonathan Ledbetter, who was suspended for two games after he fell asleep at the wheel and was hit with a DUI after the police spent 20 minutes trying to wake him up. Luckily for the Bulldogs, they still have sophomore defensive tackle Trent Thompson and will only face three dominant rushing threats this season—UNC’s freakish running back Elijah Hood, Tennessee’s Jalen Hurd, and Georgia Tech’s triple-option wizardry. If they can survive those games, their secondary should be able to handle whatever’s thrown their way and clean up any major messes the inexperienced front seven makes.
A note to all SEC quarterbacks: when this defensive unit rolls out its nickel package, audible to a run, no matter what. Hell, maybe just run it the entire game given the drastic talent disparity between the secondary and the front seven. The Bulldogs’s defensive backfield is no joke—last year, they ranked No. 1 in the entire nation against the pass. All four starters are back for Georgia this year, including junior Dominick Sanders, who enters the season as a top-10 safety. He picked off six passes last year, ranked third overall with 205 interception return yards, and compiled 48 tackles. It’s hard to oversell this squad given their proven record and experience. If you’re a defensive junky like me, you’ll want to tune into as many Georgia games as you can this year; these guys are ballhawks and always manage to stay a step ahead of the opposing aerial attack (except for Tennessee, who managed to burn the squad for 312 yards through the air on its way to a 38-31 win).
A Guy To Know
Nick Chubb is, again, the guy to know. Were it not for Leonard Fournette, Chubb would arguably have a claim to the title of best running back in the SEC and probably the nation. The thing I love most about Chubb is that it doesn’t matter if you’re Alabama, South Carolina, or Southern, he will fuck your precious prized defense up in ways you didn’t think were possible. He’s stronger, smarter, and faster than the majority of linebackers and defensive backs; he has the footwork to make defenders look like they swapped hips with your grandmother; his thighs alone could power New York City for an entire week. Through five full games last year, Chubb averaged a staggering 8.1 yards per carry and compiled 747 yards and seven scores. Like me, you probably hate math, but because I don’t hate you, I did some for you: Before Chubb got hurt, he was on pace to rush for over 1,900 yards.
Of course, instead of running his way to the Heisman and our hearts, he went and did this:
Ugh. Against bum-ass Tennessee, no less! That was the moment I stopped regularly watching the Bulldogs, because a Georgia team without Nick Chubb leaves one with that empty-stomach feeling. As much praise as I will heap on a standout secondary, Chubb truly is special. Do I need to... oh fuck it:
LOOK AT THIS MAN. Is Leonard Fournette a more complete running back? Sure, absolutely. But, man, I will take this Chubb .gif over anything Fournette or any other running back in the nation has done to date. I promise, I will do my best to never sin again if we can have a full season of Nick Chubb. If his knee really is 100 percent and can stay that way, Nick Chubb will be The Guy To Watch all season.
Can Georgia Make The Playoff?
This is an incredibly huge “maybe.” So much depends on the health of Chubb and Michel as well as the play of Eason or Lambert. The lack of depth on the team’s defensive line makes me want to say no, but this schedule is not particularly daunting outside of the season-opener against UNC and back-to-back conference contests against Tennessee and Ole Miss. So, if I have to answer, yes, if Georgia catches a few breaks health-wise, they could win the East and play for a shot at the playoff. Realistically, they’ll probably drop at least two of those games, because it’s Georgia.
Is The Coach A Dick?
Kirby Smart hasn’t been on the job long, but his Will-Muschamp-knockoff-looking ass is already rubbing me the wrong way. First, “Kirby’s Law” is a backwards, twisted law that will simply allow UGA to spend and do as it pleases without having to answer FOIA requests for 90(!) days.
It was also extremely lame when he tried to pick a fight with dairy enthusiast Jim Harbaugh, who didn’t even know Kirby’s name, over satellite camps. Then, this man tried to look America in the face and say he has zero problems with graduate transfers moving within the SEC, not five months after he “set a precedent” at Georgia that recruits won’t be allowed follow the coach who recruited them.
“I wanted to set the precedent for the future that kids would not be able to go to Miami right away,” Smart said. “It’s very important that we understand that, and that’s pretty much standard operating procedure when a coach leaves one place, that a kid can’t go there with the coach. That’s important to me that people understand that.”
It’s also worth mentioning since Smart took over the Georgia program, eight players have had run-ins with the law, including Ledbetter’s stoplight snooze. It’s at the point where the Bulldogs hired a police liaison and pay him $125,000 a year, according to Dawg Nation. Maybe Smart’s just now learning not all lawmen let guys off for playing football, maybe Athens and UGA police are jerks, or maybe the guys there don’t understand breaking the law is usually a no-no. This really doesn’t matter. I had my mind made up after Kirby’s Law—he’s a dick.
Schedule
Sept. 3: UNC
Sept. 10: Nicholis State
Sept. 17: @ Missouri
Sept. 24: @ Ole Miss
Oct. 1: Tennessee
Oct. 8: @ South Carolina
Oct. 15: Vanderbilt
Oct. 29: @ Florida
Nov. 5: @ Kentucky
Nov. 12: Auburn
Nov. 19: UL-Lafayette
Nov. 26: Georgia Tech