One of the biggest voices in college football, Joel Klatt, released his post-spring top 25 this week, and it’s evident he’s not as high on the Georgia Bulldogs entering the 2025 season as he has been in the past.
My Post-Spring Top 25 for 2025…Can't wait! pic.twitter.com/gTTP7QjJSr
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) May 5, 2025
Before we get to the Bulldogs, it’s hard to take anyone too seriously that believes Penn State is the best team in the country. James Franklin can’t help but lose every big game, Drew Allar is the most overrated quarterback in the country, and the offense is still ten years behind the rest of the country.
Georgia coming in at #8 is eye-popping as well. I’m not sure anybody that should be taken seriously has ranked them outside of their pre-season top-five since about 2017. Kirby Smart has made them national championship contenders every single season since his second year as head coach, but there are some questions the 2025 squad will have to answer, starting with the quarterback position.
Carson Beck may not be beloved in Athens, but he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the country and could easily have a Cam Ward-like run at Miami on his way to becoming the next #1 overall pick. It’s a massive transition under center, and Gunner Stockton is a relative unknown, even if he showed some promise when replacing the injured Beck at the end of the season.
But beyond the quarterback position, there’s no question that NIL has evened the playing field across the country. The Bulldogs used to dominate both sides of the line of scrimmage with relative ease, and while that remained mostly true defensively, the offensive side of the ball was an entirely different story. The Bulldogs couldn’t run the ball a season ago, and they lost four starting offensive linemen to the NFL. No matter who’s under center, that must change if Georgia wants to get back to the top of college football.
Additionally, there are actually questions on the defensive side of the ball for the first time in forever under Kirby Smart. All of Georgia’s top pass rushers went to the NFL, and Damon Wilson II, who was expected to replace some of that production, surprisingly transferred to Missouri.
Kirby Smart has never had a problem reloading on defense, as Georgia has constantly pumped out NFL defenders each draft cycle. With that being said, on paper, the wealth of talent across the defensive line is not as great as it has been in previous years.
There’s a case to be made for a number of different teams to be ahead of the Georgia Bulldogs entering the season. 8th still feels a little low, but with a 12-team playoff, it really doesn’t matter where they start. 2025 is going to be a season of growth for Kirby Smart’s squad; how fast they prove capable of playing his brand of football will ultimately determine whether they hoist the trophy at the end of the season.
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Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire
