Georgia Repeats as National Champions If...
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Only two teams currently hold better odds of winning a national championship this coming season than Georgia; according to Caesars' Sportsbook, the Bulldogs' national title opponent last season, Alabama is the favorite to win a title this year at +130, while Ohio State is the second favorite at +375, with Georgia sitting at +400.
ESPN's Bill Connelly broke down the biggest "IFs" for the 20 teams with national title odds better than +10000 per the Caesars' Sportsbook and sorted them by the number of "ifs."
Since Alabama, Ohio State, and Georgia, are the three predominant favorites to win this year's title, hence why Caesars is taking bets on a national title prop bet of "Alabama, Ohio State, and Georgia vs. the field," the three schools each have two "ifs."
For Georgia, Connelly states in order for the Bulldogs to repeat as the national champions, the front seven must do "as well as we assume," and/or "a pretty inexperienced offensive line holds up."
"The Bulldogs have finished first in defensive SP+ for three straight years, after all. They've replaced stars before, and they still have sure things such as tackle Jalen Carter and linebackers Nolan Smith and Robert Beal Jr. But any defensive regression would force quarterback Stetson Bennett and the offense to carry more weight and potentially wreck last year's perfect balance. It's fair to assume Georgia will have a top D again, but it's not a given until we see it."
- Bill Connelly
Many are right to have reservations about Georgia's chances to repeat as national champions. After all, they lost five first-rounders, three defensive linemen, and a safety, along with three other contributors from Georgia's historical defense.
The 2019 LSU national title-winning team, which featured a record-setting offense, saw seven offensive contributors taken in the following April's NFL Draft, which was half of their total players drafted that year.
The following year, the Tigers went 5-5 and did not play in a bowl game during the shortened 10-game 2020 season. Granted, LSU self-imposed a bowl ban that year due to a string of NCAA violations, despite never breaking the six-win mark of a bowl-eligible team.
After a fall from grace, where the Tigers fired national championship-winning head coach Ed Orgeron last season, many are skeptical about Georgia, despite the constant mentions by Kirby Smart of building a "sustainable" program, something Smart spoke about last week in Atlanta.
"We didn’t build this program on hoping for one-year-wonders or hoping for one opportunity. We built the program to be sustained. You sustain it by what you do every single day."
- Kirby Smart
Apart from replacing playmakers out-wide like George Pickens and Jermaine Burton, Georgia has questions on its offensive line. First off, Stacy Searels returned to Athens for a second stint as the offensive line coach, following Matt Luke stepping down this offseason. Searels inherits a room without much starting experience outside of the starting five.
Right tackle Warren McClendon and center Sedrick Van Pran Grainger started in all 15 games last season for Georgia, while the widely expected starter at left tackle Broderick Jones started in the last four games of the regular season and even came off the bench in the national championship game.
The only major shuffling will occur on the interior alongside of Van Pran Grainger. Searels will have senior Warren Ericson available to play either guard spot. Ericson started in 14 games last season at right guard. Tate Ratledge, the man who injured his foot plays into the season opener against Clemson, and will also compete for a spot.
While at SEC Media Day last week, Smart spoke about his team's lack of experience and judging by his comments, he seems confident it won't be a problem.
"What we lack right now is experience. That’s our job as coaches, to put those guys in a position to be successful and react in the calm manner and have the experience they need to play well against Oregon. That game will help set us up for the SEC gauntlet we have coming up after that."
- Kirby Smart
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