ATHENS -- Kirby Smart suggested last spring the schedule does not create Georgia’s sense of urgency, so much as the team’s intense offseason preparation.
That sounds fair enough.
But Smart knows better than anyone there’s a human element involved, and it just wasn’t the same for the Bulldogs knowing they were opening at home against UT-Martin last season as it was the previous two seasons with openers against Clemson and Oregon.
So here we are again, with Georgia facing off against Dabo Swinney’s Tigers in the opening game of 2024. It’s a Clemson team that will enter the game with a five-game win streak.
It’s a game in Atlanta that surely will create expectations for both teams, and quite possibly carry implications when the 12-team CFP is selected.
A recent ESPN pay site article notes Georgia is part of two other games projected to carry the most implications on the 12-team playoff.
Both games are away from Sanford Stadium: at Texas on Oct. 19 and at Alabama on Sept. 28.
ESPN’s Heather Dinich does a wonderful job reporting on the CFP, but she noted one often-repeated presupposition in the paysite article that did not hold as much water the past two seasons as some might think, resulting in somewhat of a cold take:
“Georgia has advanced to the SEC title game in recent years in part because the SEC East hasn’t been the most challenging side of the league.”
Last season, Georgia played the two-highest ranked league members not to make the SEC title game. East member Missouri (No. 9), and crossover opponent Ole Miss (No. 11). Georgia also had to play at Auburn, which came within one play of knocking off SEC West champ Alabama.
In 2022, Alabama was the highest-ranked non-SEC title game team at No. 5, but No. 6 beat both the Tide and 2022 West Division champ LSU in the regular season.
The Vols were on track to make the four-team CFP as an at-large selection before losing to East Division member South Carolina, which later knocked Clemson out of the four-team playoff projection.
ESPN ranks Georgia’s game at Texas, Oct. 19, tops among 2024 games with CFP implications.
The Longhorns won the most recent meeting between the teams when they met following the 2018 season in the Sugar Bowl, 28-21.
It was a Bulldogs team missing first-round pick Deandre Baker and injured outside linebacker D’Andre Walker. The team morale was also still down, as UGA missed the four-team playoff.
Smart, who has won 20-straight games since that Texas game when having more than a week to prepare, said his team’s effort was not what it needed to be in the loss to the Longhorns-- something he has not said in a loss since then.
ESPN ranked the No. 2-most impactful game of 2024 as the Bulldogs trip to Alabama, where Tide coach Kalen DeBoer will be hosting in his SEC opener.
Alabama has won eight of the last nine meetings with UGA, including last season’s SEC Championship Game by a 27-24 score.
The Tide won the last time the teams met in the regular season, 41-24 in 2020, in a game played in Tuscaloosa.
ESPN ranked the top 11 most impactful 2024 season games on the playoffs in the recent article:
Other SEC Games Noted:
No. 4 Texas at Michigan, Sept. 7
No. 7 Oklahoma at Texas, Oct. 12
No. 8 Ole Miss at LSU, Oct. 12
No. 12 LSU at USC (in Las Vegas)
Other Georgia 2024 games to take note of:
• Clemson vs. Georgia, Aug. 31 in Atlanta
— Could the Tigers make the 12-team CFP field?
• Georgia at Ole Miss, Nov 9 in Oxford
— So Ole Miss at LSU is a Top 10 game but not this one?
• Tennessee at Georgia, Nov. 16
— The Vols appear reloaded and might need this win to get in the 12-team field
