Georgia football hasn’t even kicked off its season, and the weekend already broke its way.
That’s what happens when your in-state rival opens first and stumbles in dramatic fashion. Georgia Tech went into Thursday night’s matchup with Colorado and came away with a 14-13 loss after a blocked field goal at the buzzer ended any chance of a season-opening win. For Georgia fans, that was a pretty clean early gift.
Tech had the edge for most of the night, but Colorado flipped the game late with a 20-yard touchdown pass to take a 14-13 lead with under a minute left. Georgia Tech answered by driving into field-goal range, only to see its game-winning attempt get blocked as time expired.
Georgia football fans now turn their attention to Athens, where the Bulldogs host Tennessee State on Saturday to begin their own season. Georgia Tech’s defeat doesn’t change anything in the standings for the Bulldogs, but it does give their opening weekend a little extra shine before they’ve even taken the field.
The contrast between the two programs is pretty stark right now. Georgia enters week one ranked No. 3 in the country and viewed as the favorite to win the SEC. Tech, meanwhile, is still trying to dig out of a loss that landed in one of the most painful ways possible.
Georgia’s path through 2026 starts with a manageable stretch at home against Tennessee State and Western Kentucky. Week three brings a trip to Arkansas, and that one doesn’t look overwhelming either. After that, the schedule tightens up fast.
The Bulldogs will see four preseason ranked teams the rest of the way, plus Florida and Auburn, both of whom are expected to be upset-minded. Any of those matchups could turn into trouble, but Georgia is favored in all of them right now.
There’s also the bigger picture in play. Georgia is favored to win the SEC again, which would give the program its third straight conference title. Since the SEC Championship Game arrived in the early 90s, only Florida and Alabama have managed that kind of run.
Still, the goal that matters most in Athens is the College Football Playoff. Georgia has won two national championships in the recent past, but each of the last three seasons has ended without a playoff victory.
Kirby Smart will be trying to change that in 2026, and it all starts Saturday against Tennessee State. After the way Georgia Tech’s opener went, the Bulldogs will be hoping for something a lot cleaner.
In Other News...
Georgia Fans Already Divided Over Another Sanford Stadium Gimmick
Georgia football is leaning into the kind of game-day presentation that can turn Sanford Stadium into a visual talking point before the first snap. The program announced it is asking fans to take part in a stadium striping event for the week four matchup against Oklahoma, a look it used last season, and it is also planning a white-out for the week two game against Western Kentucky. For a fan base that treats home-field atmosphere as part of the product, the message is clear: the Bulldogs want the stands to look as loud as they feel.
The response, as usual with these kinds of promos, has already split the room. Some fans like the coordinated look and the way it can make Sanford Stadium pop on television, while others see it as one more unnecessary gimmick layered onto an already big Saturday. With Oklahoma coming to town in week four, the striping idea is getting extra attention, and it will be worth watching whether the latest attempt at a themed crowd brings more buy-in the second time around. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Suddenly Has A Chance To Unlock A Former 5-Star Up Front
Xzavier McLeods retirement at the start of fall camp for the 2026 season changed the look of Georgias interior defensive line almost overnight. What had been a steady part of the rotation now has to be replaced by committee, and Kirby Smart has already signaled that the Bulldogs will sort out the snaps through competition rather than hand the job to one player.
That opens the door for Jordan Hall, a junior whose career has been slowed by injury issues, and for sophomore Elijah Griffin, whose talent gives Georgia a chance to get more out of the position group than it may have expected a few weeks ago. How much of that upside turns into actual production will depend on who can stay on the field and who can take advantage of the extra work now available up front. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Fans Have Every Reason To Push Back On Jeff Brohm
The scheduled home-and-home series between Georgia and Louisville is off, and both schools reportedly agreed to cancel it as the SECs move to nine conference games continues to reshape future slates. From Georgias side, the explanation appears tied to the growing difficulty of fitting everything in around an expanded conference schedule, a problem that has forced plenty of moving parts behind the scenes for athletic departments trying to balance competition, travel and long-term planning.
Jeff Brohm, though, offered a different version of events when he suggested Georgia was the side responsible for pulling the plug. That is where the frustration can linger for Bulldogs fans, especially with Louisville also known to have had its own trouble lining up Power Four opponents. The series is gone either way, but the debate over why it disappeared has left enough room for both schools to point in different directions. [Read more 🡒]