College Football 2015 Preview No. 7: Georgia Bulldogs
By Ty Duffy
Reg. Season Records: 9-3, 8-4, 11-1, 10-2
SRS Rankings: 5, 21, 4, 21
Talking Point: Mark Richt achievement level. Georgia, situated on a rich vein of football talent, is a plum SEC job. Half-empty: Richt has not won a conference title since 2005. Georgia always seems to drop the ball and not quite live up to its potential. Half-full: Richt finishing top 10 in eight of 14 seasons is success unprecedented in the school’s history sans Herschel Walker.
Why To Like Them: Georgia may have the nation’s best running back depth, led by preseason Heisman contender Nick Chubb. They have every guard and tackle returning from a strong offensive line. On defense, the Bulldogs have quite an athletic linebacking corps, with two players featuring in our TBL Top 50. Most of the starters stick around for a second year in Jeremy Pruitt’s system. On special teams, the Bulldogs roll out Isaiah McKenzie, who scored three special teams touchdowns as a freshman in 2014.
Why Not To Like Them: It’s not clear Georgia will have much of a passing game. Quarterback remains unsettled. Their leading returning receivers are Malcolm Mitchell (serious injury history) and a sophomore TE with 18 catches. Brian Schottenheimer’s hiring was met with skepticism. The Bulldogs did lose some key starters on defense: Damian Swann, Ramik Wilson and Amarlo Herrera.
Schedule: Georgia’s non-conference slate is lighter. Clemson gets replaced by mighty ULM. They only play three SEC road games. One of them is Vanderbilt. Of course, the other two are Tennessee and Auburn. Georgia also plays Alabama at home and ends the season at Georgia Tech, after its defense faces Auburn and Georgia Southern the two weeks before.
Throwing Darts: We’ll go the safe route and predict a very “Georgia” season. They pick off one of the Bama teams. They drop a division game or against a mediocre Florida/South Carolina. They finish 10-2.
Random Alum: Wayne Knight