2016 Georgia Football game-by-game previews and predictions
By Jay Hawkins
The season is closely approaching, and DOTD is prepared with their comprehensive game-by-game previews and predictions of the 2016 season for Georgia Football.
Related Story: Why Jacob Eason should start for Georgia Football in Week 1
It is going to be a very interesting season for the Bulldogs as they will debut a new head coach for the first time in over a decade in Kirby Smart. Georgia has been picked by pretty much all the media to be a prime contender in the SEC East race.
However, no one knows exactly what to expect from this Georgia team under Smart. They could have just a good season or sneak their way into Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game. No one knows for sure.
Smart has said all the right things and made waves on the recruiting trail, but who knows for sure how the former Alabama defensive coordinator will do on the field. (Most people are pretty optimistic about this though).
Also, Georgia has to worry about who is going to be the quarterback this year. Will it be 2015 starter Greyson Lambert, junior Brice Ramsey or freshman phenom Jacob Eason? All signs point toward the prodigy Eason taking over the reigns and starting sooner rather than later. He is the most talented and has the most upside of the three signal-callers, but we still do not know if he will start on opening day.
UGA also has to deal with losing some talent (on the rest of the team) but returns a lot as well including notably a dynamic running back duo in Nick Chubb and Sony Michel that is probably the best combo in the country when healthy. They also return most of the starters from their offensive line and a receiving corps, which seems to be in decent shape with Terry Godwin leading the charge. Combine that with the tight end position being absolutely ridiculous with starter Jeb Blazevich, blue-chip freshman Isaac Nauta and Jackson Harris, and the pieces are in place to help whoever plays quarterback.
The defense is Kirby Smart’s strong suit, and he and defensive coordinator Mel Tucker return a pretty solid unit led by an experienced secondary and a good linebacking corps. Unfortunately, the defensive line depth is a weakness thanks to attrition and graduating players and definitely could cause the Dawgs to lose some games this fall.
Hopefully, the Bulldogs get this figured out along with the other aforementioned question marks and the questions on special teams. Kick returner and punt returner is not an issue as Georgia can always plug in the dangerous Isaiah McKenzie, who has returned four punts and one kickoff for touchdowns. The question here is who will step up at both kicker and punter? That is still unresolved.
Anyway, It will definitely be another exciting season in the greatest sport that has ever been invented. Without further ado, let’s dig into the 2016 Georgia Football schedule and preview each game and predict the result.
Next: Sep. 3 vs. North Carolina