Another year, another Q&A with my pal Macondawg, who’s keeping the lights on over at Dawgsports.com. With Alabama and Georgia set to square off tomorrow, the match up may have lost a little of it’s luster, but it’s still one of the premier games of the entire college football season. Without further preamble, here are all of the inner workings of the mind of a Georgia fan:
1) Georiga seems to falling a bit in national discussions (ranked 5th overall despite being undefeated), Alabama is chopped liver, and ESPN Gameday is going somewhere other than a mid-season matchup between the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide. What even is this reality?
The college football narrative machine doesn’t really play favorites. Right now Georgia and Alabama are both attractive targets for a comeuppance after years (or decades) of success. There’s also some sense that in the NIL era flashy programs throwing money around are going to be the winners.
I think the rumors of both teams’ demise have been exaggerated. Unlike Dabo Swinney’s Clemson squad that has looked genuinely lost, both of these teams have shown themselves to be playoff contenders, and will likely both be in the playoff mix at the end of the season.
2) Gunner Stockton isn’t getting much credit in the media at large. He’s mostly getting talked about as a guy that Georgia has to overcome, but he can at least run a little bit and tries hard. Is this a media narrative you want to take a minute to disprove?
Georgia had a golden-armed Heisman hopeful quarterback in 2023 and 2024 and quite frankly it didn’t turn out great. Don’t get me wrong, those were both pretty good seasons. But there has been a palpable sense in Athens that Carson Beck, maybe did not have what it took to really put a team on his back and carry it to a title.
We don’t know yet whether Gunner Stockton has that. But we do know that he brings a dimension of athleticism and toughness that Beck didn’t. Having seen him throw the ball I would say his arm talent is maybe not on Beck’s level in terms of velocity (or his backup Ryan Puglisi’s for that matter), but he has really phenomenal touch on the ball. And his ability to both run the hurry-up or grind out yards on the ground in the Stetson Bennett mold allows Kirby to play the kind of complimentary football he and Mike Bobo want to play.
He’s going to have some up and down moments I suspect, but Gunner Stockton is going to end the year more highly ranked among SEC QBs than he started it.
3) This may be jumping back to the first question, but a recent “anonymous NFL scout” quote surfaced saying that this game between Alabama and Georgia doesn’t really feature any surefire 1st round draft picks next year. Alabama has LT Kadyn Proctor who’s been all hype and no results for 2.5 seasons, but does Georgia have any guys you think could be 1st round picks next year? And if not, are there any that are looking like it in 2027 or even 2028?
Anonymous you say? I wouldn’t put my name on that opinion, either. For the 2026 draft guard Micah Morris could sneak into the late first round. He’s been a productive backup who is transitioning into a bellwether up front. If he slips to the second round it will be because it’s tough to justify drafting an interior lineman that high.
Linebacker CJ Allen is one of the most productive and reliable inside ‘backers in college football. He doesn’t necessarily have prototype height, but that’s becoming less of an issue in the league as the need to play spread/multiple fronts continues to expand.
Defensive tackle Christen Miller also has the potential to go in the first round this year if he had the kind of healthy, productive season Bulldog fans are looking for. He’s a big defensive tackle who can play in the A gaps and also has the potential to slide outside in a 3-4.
USC transfer Zachariah Branch is another guy a team could decide to stake first round money on, especially given his ability to make a difference in the kicking game. He’s one of the most explosive players in college football, bar none.
Looking into the future, I would be surprised in sophomore safety KJ Bolden isn’t high on draft boards next year. Also guard Juan Gaston is starting as a true freshman, and could easily move out and become a bookend right tackle. He has NFL size (6’8, 350) right now, great feet, and a nasty streak.
4) We all know Nate Frazier as a solid, though not particularly explosive, SEC running back, and he’s averaging 4.8 yards per carry. Does UGA have any other backs who can be more of the threat to bust a big play off a change up?
The big play threat in this backfield comes from Dwight Phillips, Jr. Phillips was a national level track star in high school and has a high gear that makes him tough to catch if he gets the edge. The sophomore has 17 carries for 144 yards on the season (8.5 yards per attempt).
5) USC transfer Zachariah Branch and former Miami Hurricane, Colbie Young, lead the team in receiving. Meanwhile, longtime UGA contributor Dillon Bell seems to have had something of a diminished role. Has Bell underperformed and lost playing time, or Branch and Young just been that much better? Or has it just been a small sample size kind of thing?
Small sample size and game plan. Georgia really didn’t put the ball in the air downfield much against Marshall and Austin Peay, then felt they had good matchups outside against Tennessee’s young corners. That left Bell, who does his best work in the slot working the screen game and those “long handoff” type passes without much to do. I could see his role increasing a little this week.
But Georgia does have more reliable receivers than they have in recent years, and that is going to keep anyone from getting an outsized number of touches. Vanderbilt transfer London Humphreys had a huge game against Tennessee, and A&M transfer Noah Thomas has shown some flashes as well. Throw in veteran tight ends Oscar Delp and Lawson Luckie and there frankly may not be enough balls to go around if Mike Bobo chooses to, in fact, run the dang ball.
6) Georgia only has 4 sacks so far this season (don’t worry, Alabama also only has 4 and we’re appropriately mad about it). Where are the Bulldogs getting (or supposed to be getting) their pass rush from?
Kirby Smart was asked about this stat specifically this week and had a really good response. He said that they’re really not concerned about that number because their defense hasn’t really had a lot of opportunities to create sacks situationally. Georgia’s played fewer defensive snaps this season than many teams. For example, the Bulldogs offense ran 87 plays against Tennessee’s young corners, but the Vols only ran 70, which is a very un-Heupel number.
And if you watch the schemes it’s clear that Glenn Schumann has been keeping it very vanilla so far. Georgia also wasn’t getting to the QB a lot in the early going last year. Then in the first quarter of the Texas game they knocked Quinn Ewers out and then sent Arch Manning back to the bench with his eyes bugged out of his head.
I expect that when the time is right, the pressure will be there.
7) What position group, player, or coaching matchup between Bama and UGA are you most confident about, and which one are you most worried about?
I like the Bulldog front seven and the Sanford Stadium crowd against the Tide offensive line. The Dawgs are as deep up front on defense as they’ve been since 2022, and I’m not yet sold on the Bama front if they need to repeatedly convert 3rd and short. Also, in a hostile road environment, at night, I could see the Tide front surpassing the 3 false starts they had against FSU. If those come at the wrong time, it could be decisive.
That being said, I don’t think we have an answer for Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard. Tennessee showed that the young Bulldog secondary is going to give you some chances to go deep, and the Vols converted on those. Two Chris Brazzell touchdown receptions covering 126 yards were the thing that kept that one close. And Williams may be even more of a problem. If Ty Simpson can get him the ball consistently, it’s a huge problem for the home team.
The other matchup that worries me is Gunner Stockton versus Kane Wommack. Wommack does a great job disguising coverages and that’s a concern with a relatively inexperienced QB. If the Tide get a boost in the pass rush from Tim Keenan’s return they could force Stockton into some catastrophic errors.
8) How do you predict the game goes?
In games between closely matched, good football teams the difference is usually a combination of turnovers, penalties, and special teams play. Georgia is the least penalized team in the SEC this season, and I like punter Brett Thorson and kicker Peyton Woodring if we need to get bailed out in the kicking game. I think either the Dawgs win 34-27 in a game where Alabama loses its discipline at the worst time, or Alabama wins a 41-27 contest in which Gunner Stockton shows he’s not yet ready for prime time and Ryan Williams reaffirms that he is.
9) How do you feel about the three semi-permanent rivals that UGA got assigned?
Great, actually. The Barn and Florida were the two non-negotiable opponents for most Bulldog fans from a traditional rivalry standpoint. South Carolina balances that out as a close geographic opponent but also, if we’re being honest, probably isn’t going to be a huge threat annually. We can’t all play Vanderbilt every year, so the Gamecocks are a nice alternative.
10) Who wins the SEC this year?
I think the winner of this game has the inside track. I’m still not sold on Texas against elite competition. I’ll probably never be sold on Ole Miss as consistent enough to get the job done. But I could see the SEC title game as a virtual playoff eliminator between a pair of two-loss teams, one of whom leaves with one too many blemishes on its record. That sounds weird to say that the loser of the SEC Championship Game might not be one of the twelve best teams in college football, but I think we’re in for a weird end to this season.
11) Which SEC program are we laughing at the most by the end of the year?
Florida. The answer’s always Florida. The answer would be Auburn though if it weren’t rude to laugh at folks who just can’t help it.
12) What is the minimum it would take for you to feel good about UGA’s season?
10-2 regular season and a trip to the playoff semifinals. I think in the new era of college football fans have to recalibrate their expectations. You’re not going to get through the schedules UGA and Alabama are playing without a loss unless you have a generational football team and get a generous sprinkle of luck.
Even if that happens, you still have to win a minimum of three playoff games against solid competition late in the year while battling injuries and fatigue. Those become bigger issues in the transfer portal/NIL era because those redshirt sophomore backups Kirby and Nick used to plug in are now starting at Purdue and UCLA, replaced by true freshmen. It’s a hard ask. I wouldn’t be surprised if the 2022 UGA team is the last undefeated national champion I see.
