Too many placing too much weight on last season's GA score

Posted on: August 20, 2016 at 10:58:10 CT

Too many folks are looking at the 9-6 loss in Athens last year as a measure of the the two teams. They are not that close.

Georgia returns both of its top two QBs from last year and adds Jacob Eason, the #1 prospect in last year's high school class (can you say another Josh Rosen). Eason enrolled in January and had a very good spring, including an impressive spring game.

Nick Chubb is comming off of knee surgery, but is expected to make a full recovery. If he is healthy and at full strength, he is a Fournette (sp:) class runner.

The Tiger defense may not be as good as many expect. The loss of Brady eliminates the second best pass rusher from the defensive line. It simply means that the defensive line group is one player short of where it would otherwise be, i.e. the #2 DE is now a starter, the #3 DE is now #2, etc.

Additionally, the defensive is replacing a 2nd team AA in Brothers with an underclassmen starting for the first time and some reports suggest the Tigers are still looking for replacement for Dennis at corner (the reports of perhaps playing more press coverage if a corner opposite Penton can be found).

The Tiger offensive line has a total of three (3) returning starts (Abelin). A recent Phil Steele article in Sports Illustrated on defensive lines (after the loss of Brady and Brantley) dropped the Tiger Defensive Line behind Georgia's. That may or may not be accurate, but it does suggest that the Tiger offensive line will be at a disadvantage.

Kirby Smart's defenses never game up more than an average of 18.6 points per game at Alabama. His overall talent at Georgia is probably a lot closer to Alabama's than Odom's is.

Georgia will not be the "lock" win that many seem to be assuming.