The noise around Georgia has gotten loud enough that you might think the Bulldogs are fading into the background. A lot of the national chatter is drifting toward the Big Ten’s latest darlings, while Georgia keeps getting treated like yesterday’s story.
That’s not how Phil Steele sees it. He’s the one major voice in the mix pushing back on the idea that Georgia has slipped.
On 680 The Fan, Steele said, "I agree with you 100%. I've got them No. 2 in the country...
I still think Georgia is the best team in the SEC this year."
For Georgia fans, that kind of take probably sounds a lot more familiar than the doom-and-gloom predictions floating around elsewhere. CBS Sports has Georgia taking a surprising loss in 2026, while another analyst says the Bulldogs have “slipped” and that the coming season will be a test for Kirby Smart. Yahoo Sports has even gone as far as predicting Georgia will be dethroned in the SEC championship.
But the case for Georgia is sitting right there in the numbers and the roster. The Bulldogs are bringing back 14 starters, and those returners account for 68% of last season’s production. That came after a year in which Georgia lost just one regular-season game, to Alabama, and picked up ranked wins over Texas, Ole Miss and Georgia Tech before hammering Alabama in the SEC title game.
Even with any concern about recruiting, Georgia still signed the No. 6 class in the nation last season, and some of those players are expected to be on the field in 2026.
That group is set to be guided by one of the best quarterbacks in the country, along with what the source describes as the most stacked running back and tight end groups in the nation. Put that together, and you get a roster loaded with talent.
If there’s one thing Kirby Smart has always understood, it’s that doubt can be useful. Georgia tends to play its best when people start counting it out, and this year’s wave of skepticism gives Smart plenty to work with.
The pressure, for now, is landing elsewhere - in Columbus, Austin, South Bend and Eugene. Georgia can stay in its lane, handle business, and keep aiming for a record-setting sixth straight trip to Atlanta in December.
Smart isn’t the type to chase attention or plead for respect. He lets the results do the talking. And if the rest of the country wants to overlook Georgia again, the Bulldogs seem perfectly happy to keep hiding in plain sight.
In Other News...
Georgia Faces A Growing SEC Debate It Cant Ignore
As more SEC schools keep leaning into entertainment districts as a way to reshape the fan experience and open new revenue streams, Georgia is still taking a more cautious path. Athletic director Josh Brooks said the university does not have an immediate plan for a district of its own, largely because of campus space limitations, but he also left the door open to land-use possibilities that could eventually change the conversation.
For now, the focus is on making better use of what already exists. Brooks pointed to Sanford Stadium, Stegeman Coliseum and Foley Field as venues that could help bring in more non-sports events, part of a broader effort to generate revenue without rushing into a major development project. The bigger question is whether Georgia can keep pace with the SECs latest trend while waiting for the right opportunity to emerge south of campus. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Lands 5th In ESPNs Most Debated Preseason Ranking
ESPNs Football Power Index always draws attention when the preseason version drops, and Georgia is once again near the top of the conversation. The system leans on a mix of unit efficiency, opponent adjustments, prior-year results, recruiting, home-field and travel factors, then runs thousands of season simulations to sort out the order, which is part of why the Bulldogs keep showing up in the national picture before a snap is played.
Still, the bigger lesson from recent preseason FPI releases is that the numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. Recent SEC-heavy examples have shown how often these early rankings miss the mark, with plenty of teams that started high eventually finishing nowhere near it, so Georgias place in the mix is more a reminder of its reputation than a guarantee of how the season will unfold. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Just Reopened A Frustrating Future Schedule Debate
Georgias 2028 football schedule just got a little more interesting after Florida A&M and the Bulldogs mutually canceled their planned Sept. 9 game at Sanford Stadium. The date is now open, and it lands on a slate that already looks packed with 11 Power 4 opponents, a nine-game SEC schedule and neutral-site matchups against Florida State and Florida.
So the real question is less about whether Georgia will fill the spot than what kind of game it wants there. The expectation is that the Bulldogs will add another home opponent that does not raise the degree of difficulty much, a familiar kind of scheduling move for a program that has long balanced a brutal conference grind with a softer nonleague date or two. Kirby Smart has also made clear before that he knows when a matchup is lopsided, which is part of why this latest opening has reopened a debate Georgia fans know well. [Read more 🡒]