Georgia football is entering the College Football Playoff as one of the favorites to win a National Championship. In fact, some analysts believe that they will be the team to hoist the trophy at the end of the playoff.
On3's J.D. PicKell is one of those analysts who believes Georgia will win the national title, and he predicted a very intriguing matchup in the championship game for UGA.
NEW: College Football Playoff Prediction via @jdpickell🏆
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Kirby Smart, Georgia predicted to face former assistant in championship game
PicKell predicted Georgia will face Ole Miss in the quarterfinals and Ohio State in the semifinals of the playoff this season. These are the two most likely opponents for UGA to play, so this would not be surprising at all. PicKell has Georgia winning these two matchups, but waiting for them in the championship game are the Oregon Ducks.
Oregon is the 5-seed in the playoff this season, so they are not expected to make it to the title game. But after a first round win over James Madison PicKell believes they will beat Texas Tech and Indiana en route to the title game.
A matchup with Oregon however would be extremely exciting for Georgia for multiple reasons, but the greatest is the fact that the Ducks head coach is former UGA assistant Dan Lanning. Lanning spent four seasons in Athens as an assistant on Kirby Smart's staff before becoming the head coach at Oregon in 2022. So this would be a classic matchup between two coaches who more than likely are very good friends.
Georgia would likely be favored in this matchup, but the Ducks are more than good enough to win this game. But Oregon has to win three games and Georgia has to win twice in order for this matchup to take place. That may sound like a long shot, but in reality there is a great chance this will be the National Championship game this season.