Georgia is once again expected to contend for a national championship this season. The Bulldogs have won the last two and have more than enough talent to win a third.

So what has to happen for Georgia to win the last college football game of the season? In outlining what has to happen for 17 of the top teams to possibly win the national championship, ESPN’s Bill Connelly noted that Georgia only has two big questions.

The first deals with whether or not Carson Beck, or someone else, is ready to step in for Stetson Bennett as the team’s quarterback.

The other has to do with how Mike Bobo will do as the team’s new offensive coordinator.

“Considering that Georgia will almost certainly have another elite defense in 2023, this might be the easiest coordinator job Bobo has ever had,” Connelly wrote. “Still, college football offenses have changed a lot since the last time he oversaw a good one (2014, in his first stint at Georgia). If he’s not ready, neither is Georgia.”

In Connelly’s piece, Georgia had the fewest amount of “what-ifs” in regard to winning a national championship. Michigan, Penn, State, Ohio State, LSU, Tennessee and Alabama all had three.

Bobo was on staff a season ago, working as an analyst with the team. He has previous experience at Georgia, serving as the team’s offensive coordinator from 2007 through 2014. He also has more recent stops at South Carolina and Auburn.

But replacing a coordinator is never easy. One of the big reasons Mark Richt was fired following the 2015 season was because his replacement for Bobo as Georgia’s offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, failed catastrophically.

Georgia’s previous offensive coordinator was Todd Monken, who was a Broyles Award finalist a season ago. He is now calling plays for the Baltimore Ravens.

But other than Monken, Georgia brings back every offensive assistant from last season’s staff. The Bulldogs averaged 41.1 points per game last season, a high-water mark for the Smart era.

Smart was quick to point out that while Monken was very good at his job, he wasn’t doing it all by himself.

“He was quick to say, ‘Coach, you’re going to be fine no matter who you put in that position because you’re going to oversee it and make sure they do it right as the leader, and then they’re going to do a good job because they have pride in their performance as assistant coaches on offense and then whoever you put in that position is going to have good players and be able to have good players and be able to be successful,’” Smart said.

“So a lot of times your offense is predicated off your quarterback play, so how well will our quarterback play? And that’s the question.”

Bobo will also be the team’s quarterbacks coach, working with Beck, Vandagriff and Stockton in a hands on way. Bobo knows what it is like to be a Georgia quarterback, as he played the position when he was teammates with Smart.

Georgia had its first padded practice on Saturday and will have its first scrimmage this coming Saturday. All eyes will be on the quarterback position, and not just from the national media perspective, but the coaching one as well.

Even Smart admits as much.

“We were very fortunate to have Todd the time he was here, the growth he allowed us to make, the confidence he exuded with the players,” Smart said. “He had a package of offense that he felt confident in that fit the players that he was given. He made the personnel fit his scheme. I don’t see that changing. You know, obviously the quarterback is a major, major part of that, and we had really good quarterback play last year.”