For the first time in a long time, there is a lot of uncertainty among talking heads surrounding the Georgia Bulldogs as we approach Week 1 of the college football season.

Gunner Stockton takes over as the starting quarterback after serving as the team’s backup behind Carson Beck, who is now at Miami. That’s always a tricky situation to navigate, especially if you struggle to run the football consistently, as they did most of last season. For the Bulldogs to get back into the national title picture, they have to re-establish their identity on the ground. Not an easy thing to do when four starters from last year’s offensive line are now playing on Sundays.

Defensively, there are questions about whether Georgia can get back to the level of dominance they experienced a couple of years ago, especially with seven players from last year’s group now in the NFL. There will be a lot of new faces on both sides of the ball, but that’s not necessarily a new development in Athens, which has produced NFL talent at a higher rate than any other program in the country since Kirby Smart took over as head coach.

The Bulldogs never rebuild. They simply reload, and there could be a lot of people talking about this team much differently once the games start being played.

Georgia Bulldogs Schedule Predictions

• Game 1: Georgia vs. Marshall — Win
• Game 2: Georgia vs. Austin Peay — Win
• Game 3: Georgia @ Tennessee — Win
• Game 4: Georgia vs. Alabama — Loss
• Game 5: Georgia vs. Kentucky — Win
• Game 6: Georgia @ Auburn — Win
• Game 7: Georgia vs. Ole Miss — Win
• Game 8: Georgia vs. Florida (Neutral) — Win 
• Game 9: Georgia @ Mississippi State — Win
• Game 10: Georgia vs. Texas — Win
• Game 11: Georgia vs. Charlotte — Win
• Game 12: Georgia @ Georgia Tech — Win

Record: 11-1

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Georgia’s schedule is incredibly difficult, featuring five teams currently ranked in the AP top 25, including two in the top 10. However, the great thing about this year’s schedule is that all of their biggest matchups take place between the hedges, where the Bulldogs haven’t lost since 2019.

The season really kicks off in Week 3 when the Bulldogs travel to Neyland Stadium to take on the Tennessee Volunteers. This is going to be an incredibly intriguing matchup for numerous reasons. It will be the first road test of Gunner Stockton’s career in possibly the most hostile environment he will ever experience, as the Vols attempt to snap an eight-game losing streak to the Bulldogs. There is some upset potential here, but given Kirby Smart’s track record against Josh Heupel and the fact that Tennessee is breaking in a new quarterback of their own, Georgia should do enough to win.

The only loss I have on the Bulldogs’ schedule is to Alabama. It’s been the one team that’s plagued Smart throughout his entire career, and the Crimson Tide’s success against Georgia continued in Kalen DeBoer’s first season, winning a thriller in Tuscaloosa. Alabama’s roster is as loaded as any team in the country, and while DeBoer had a lot of trouble getting his team up week-by-week last year, he had no issues when it came to marquee matchups. That’s when the Crimson Tide played their best, and I expect that to continue in his second season.

A couple of weeks later, the Bulldogs travel to Auburn, one of the most difficult places in the country to play. Could this finally be the season Hugh Freeze gets things moving in the right direction on The Plains? Potentially, but I don’t think they have enough to upset Georgia in this critical midseason matchup.

The following week, Georgia has an opportunity for revenge against Ole Miss. The Rebels dominated the Bulldogs a year ago, but lost a ton of talent and now have to travel to Athens for this showdown. I like the Bulldogs to get that revenge at home leading into the bye week.

The Florida Gators await the Bulldogs after the bye in one of the best rivalries in all of sports. Georgia’s won four straight against Florida and seven of the last eight; however, there is a lot of excitement around the Gators this season, mostly because of starting quarterback DJ Lagway. If Lagway is all that he’s cracked up to be, this game could have SEC title implications, but I can’t bring myself to pick Billy Napier over Kirby Smart, especially in a rivalry game.

In the third to last game of the season, the Bulldogs host the preseason #1 team in the country. Everybody has already pinned Texas as the best team in the conference, with Arch Manning a likely Heisman candidate. Perhaps that is the case, but it’s impossible to get those images from last season out of my head, when the Bulldogs topped the Longhorns not once but twice. In Athens, it’s only going to be more difficult for Texas to win, which is why I’m siding with Georgia again in what should be one of the games of the season.

Finally, Georgia wraps up their season in familiar fashion against an in-state rival. The matchup between the Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets last season was pure cinema, with Georgia needing eight overtimes to win at home. This year’s game will take place at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, and while Yellow Jackets fans have reason to be excited for this season, it’s going to be very difficult to catch the Bulldogs sleeping two years in a row. They might have missed their best opportunity to beat Georgia last year.

An 11-1 showing would certainly guarantee the Bulldogs a shot at the SEC championship and one of the top seeds in the College Football Playoff. That’s been the expectation under Kirby Smart. Anything less will be viewed as a disappointment.