ATHENS — Kirby Smart and his Georgia football team have already started working on the 2025 campaign, but now they can do so with last season in the rearview mirror.
The Bulldogs start this first official day of the college football offseason third among next year’s championship favorites — per ESPNbet and DraftKings.com — with Ohio State and Texas the top two favorites per the oddsmakers.
The Buckeyes topped Notre Dame by a 34-23 count in the College Football Playoff Championship Game on Monday night.
The talent on the No. 8-seeded Ohio State roster clicked in the newly expanded 12-team College Football Playoff and was on display throughout the action against the No. 7-seeded Irish in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The Bulldogs were the preseason favorite to win this year’s national championship, and they appeared capable of doing just that after overcoming a challenging schedule and winning the SEC Championship Game to earn the CFP No. 2 seed.
But roster attrition and injuries took their toll in UGA’s season-ending 23-10 Sugar Bowl CFP Quarterfinal loss to Notre Dame.
Georgia, playing without injured former starting QB Carson Beck proved void of the offensive talent and playmakers needed to overcome the two turnovers and special teams touchdown it handed an opportunistic Notre Dame team that led the nation with 33 takeaways.
Ohio State, with the nation’s largest athletic budget at $275 million, used what Buckeyes’ A.D. told Yahoo.com was “around $20 million” in NIL budget to acquire players that keyed the program’s championship run.
Ohio State quarterback Will Howard, a transfer from Kansas State, set a new College Football Playoff Championship Game record by completing his first 13 passes en route to a 17-of-21 passing performance that netted 231 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Howard also rushed for 57 yards on 16 carries as the Buckeyes scored touchdowns on their first four possessions of the night.
Ohio State tailback Quinshon Judkins, a former SEC rushing champ who transferred from Ole Miss, was the game’s leading rusher with 100 yards an 2 touchdowns on 11 carries, also catching two passes for 21 yards and a third touchdown.
Also notable, Buckeyes’ safety Caleb Downs, the top freshman defensive back in the SEC a season ago at Alabama, made five tackles and provided supreme pass coverage.
Downs will be returning to an Ohio State roster that’s loaded with talent, including freshman receiving sensation Jeremiah Smith, sparking great optimism for a repeat that oddsmakers have taken note of.
Texas, meanwhile, will see legacy quarterback Arch Manning taking over under center for coach Steve Sarkisian.
Manning, who ranked among the Top 10 NIL earners last season despite playing a backup role to departing signal caller Quinn Ewers, brings the sort of dual-threat abilities to the position that both Howard and Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard exhibited on Monday night.
The Longhorns return explosive back Quintrevion Wisner, but they have some rebuilding to do around Manning on offense.
The defense, however, appears firm, anchored by Freshman All-American end Colin Simmons, and buoyed by defensive line transfers Cole Brevard (Purdue) an Travis Shaw (North Carolina), along with Arkansas linebacker Brad Spence.
Smart and his Georgia players will be hard at work on themselves, meanwhile, entering into an offseason coming off a loss for the first time in six years.
The Bulldogs had won seven straight bowl games in that span, beating Ohio State two seasons ago in the Peach Bowl CFP Semifinal, and knocking off Notre Dame in Athens during the 2019 season.
Georgia’s two wins over Texas last season were also notable, as they were underdogs on both occasions before prevailing 30-15 in Austin during the regular season and 22-19 in the SEC title game.
Quarterback Gunner Stockton engineered the SEC title game comeback win over Texas, and the Bulldogs were aggressive in the portal adding transfer receivers Zachariah Branch (USC) and Noah Thomas (Texas A&M) to an offensive arsenal that already includes rising tight end stars Oscar Delp and Lawson Luckie, and explosive tailback Nate Frazier.
The UGA defensive front gets a lift with the return of defensive lineman Christen Miller and linebackers Raylen Wilson and C.J. Allen, while the secondary looks sturdy with SEC Championship Game MVP Daylen Everette at cornerback and Freshman All-American K.J. Bolden at one of the safety positions.
The championship culture Smart has built isn’t going anywhere, even if it’s possible there could be coaching changes and more roster shuffling before the dust settles on the second portal window (April 16-April 25) following UGA’s spring drills.
DraftKings.com 2025 championship winner odds
Ohio State +450
Texas +500
Georgia +550
Oregon +750
Penn State +900
Alabama +1200
Notre Dame +1600
Clemson +2000
Tennessee +2000
LSU +2000
Ole Miss +2500
Miami +2500
Michigan +3000
Texas A&M +3500
South Carolina +4000
Florida +6000
USC +7000
Oklahoma +7000
