Georgia football’s biggest hater is at it again. Every Georgia fan knows how much Paul Finebaum dislikes UGA. Even if he has never come out and said that, it’s clear that he is against the Bulldogs after how often he speaks negatively about them.
The latest example came when Finebaum was asked if he thinks Georgia is a National Championship contender or a team that will be fighting just to make it into the College Football Playoff.
“I believe they'll be fighting to be in the playoffs," shared Finebaum via ugawire.usatoday.com. “And we all respect Kirby Smart. I think he's the best coach in college football, but that does not mean anything if you lose players like they have lost over the last couple of years."
Paul Finebaum has little faith in Georgia this season
There are a few reasons why Finebaum’s opinion isn’t crazy. Georgia once again has to replace a lot of key contributors from last year’s team after countless departures to the NFL and Transfer Portal. This means Georgia will have plenty of new faces playing a much larger role, with quarterback Gunner Stockton facing the most questions. The Bulldogs also face a very difficult schedule which includes matchups against Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Florida and Ole Miss.
However, even if those concerns are valid, this is nothing new to Georgia. UGA has to replace a lot of talent every year and that has never slowed them down much before. After winning back-to-back national titles, Georgia had to start a new quarterback in Carson Beck in 2023. And what did Georgia do? They went 12-0 before losing to Alabama in the SEC Championship game.
Then last season Georgia was able to win the SEC behind Stockton who led a second half comeback against Texas in the SEC title game.
The difficult schedule for Georgia also isn’t anything new either as that is the case every season as well. Vegas also has Georgia currently favored in their three most difficult games against Texas, Alabama and Tennessee, so this means sportsbooks will have UGA favored in all 12 regular season games this year.
In a few months the college football world will see how Georgia does this season, but as long as Kirby Smart is in Athens the Bulldogs should always be considered a favorite to win the SEC and make a deep run in the College Football Playoff.