Georgia Bulldogs News: Football doubted, recruiting update, softball downs Florida

The most exciting news of the day came on the softball diamond as Georgia looks to get back to the Women’s College World Series. So in the spirit of saving the best news for last, let’s first dive into some football updates beginning with some hate Georgia is receiving from ESPN.

ESPN predicts Georgia will miss the College Football Playoff

Georgia enters the 2025 season with a lot of major questions that is casting doubt on their team. Having to start a new quarterback while also needing to replace countless elite players that left for the NFL is a tall task no matter who the program is, but even though Georgia has proven to be one of the top programs in the country this decade, people are still doubting them entering the 2025 season.

The latest example of that is when ESPN’s David Hale left Georgia off his College Football Playoff prediction.

"And yet, by the end of 2024, it was clear some of the shine was off the once-dominant program,” Hale said via ugawire.usatoday.com. “Beck struggled without much help from his skill positions. The Dawgs lost to Alabama, were whooped by Ole Miss, and nearly fell to Georgia Tech before escaping in eight overtimes.”

Hale makes a good point about Georgia’s 2024 season. They struggled a lot compared to the three years prior, which included losses to Alabama and Ole Miss in the regular season while also barely getting by Georgia Tech. UGA also didn’t make any noise in the CFP as they lost their first game to Notre Dame.

However, Hale forgot to mention Georgia’s two wins over Texas and their dominant victory over Tennessee as well. He also failed to realize that Georgia loses a ton of talent every offseason, and that hasn’t stopped their program from winning championships before.

Most Georgia fans would agree that UGA should not be the favorite to win the National Championship, but based on the talent Georgia still has on their roster, predicting them to miss the College Football Playoff is a bit absurd.

Georgia football makes the cut for 2 elite recruits

Georgia football found out on Saturday that they made the final cut for two elite recruits they are pursuing. The first is top 100 offensive tackle Malakai Lee, who put Georgia in his top four along with Alabama, Michigan and Texas.

Four-star linebacker Kenneth Goodwin also put Georgia in his top five along with SMU, Oregon, Michigan and Texas

Georgia is the small favorite in Goodwin’s recruitment according to On3, but Lee’s recruitment is far more interesting right now. On3 had USC as the overwhelming favorite in his recruitment, but they somehow didn’t even make his top four. So at this point no one knows who the leader is for Lee, but Georgia fans should be excited that UGA is still in the running.

Georgia softball forces game three against Florida

After losing game one on Friday to Florida in the Super Regionals of the NCAA Tournament, Georgia softball bounced back Saturday to force a game three. The Gators arguably played better than Georgia as they outhit the Bulldogs and had zero errors to Georgia’s three, but that’s didn’t matter as UGA held on to beat No. 3 Florida 2-1.

Georgia and Florida will play one final game on Sunday with the winner advancing to the Women’s College Wolrd Series. First pitch for game three is scheduled for 4:00 pm EST on Sunday and will be aired on ESPN.