BRUTAL: Georgia Bulldogs Face Nine-Game SEC Conference GAUNTLET—Can They SURVIVE the Season?

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First year of a nine game conference schedule, season win totals are out.

How many is Georgia going to win in 2026?

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What is up everybody?

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Today's episode brought to you by our friends over at five hour energy,

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And as I mentioned in the open, we are talking SEC win totals.

The first batch for the 2026 season has been released.

It's always fun to sort of think about how at least certain books,

certain gambling establishments are projecting SEC wins.

This is by no means a lock predictor of how things are going to go.

But by and large, we say it all the time.

There's a reason that these casinos are very big and very expensive.

And they have the money to keep building them

because they are right more often than they are wrong.

And so season win totals come out and Georgia tied at the top of the SEC

in terms of overall projected wins at nine and a half.

So Georgia projected nine and a half wins,

meaning if you want to take the over,

you're betting on Georgia going 10 and two this year.

And if you want to take the under,

you're counting on Georgia to lose three games.

Texas also sitting at nine and a half,

notably Alabama, Texas A&M and LSU are at eight and a half.

I can't imagine that LSU fans will be disappointed

with being projected right there with Alabama right at the top,

right near the top of the SEC.

What could go wrong?

But that's not what we're here to talk about today.

Let's talk about Georgia.

So according to this, nine and a half wins

at the top of the SEC, along with Texas,

it would put Georgia back in the SEC title game

for now fourth year in a row.

How do we feel about that?

What do we think that that's reasonable

in terms of where Georgia is at this point

where the 2026 season is shaping up

and what the schedule is laid out?

Firstly, I mentioned it in the cold,

the SEC moving to a nine game conference schedule.

And so that's the big change for Georgia

and for all these SEC teams this year,

an extra conference game, a nine game schedule.

It's gonna mean an unbalanced look

in terms of numbers of home games and away games.

Right now, Georgia this year has five home games

and four away games, but the Jacksonville game,

which is actually not a Jacksonville game,

but it's not a home game.

And so it's not played in Athens.

It's only four games in Athens,

four games away from Athens and five games

and one game on a neutral site.

So nine game conference schedule this year,

meaning that Georgia's down to three non-conference games.

They'll open the season against Tennessee State,

Western Kentucky on September's fifth and 12th,

respectively, and then close the season

as always against Georgia Tech.

But that's it.

There's not that third non-conference game.

So there's no marquee conference,

non-conference game this year for Georgia.

There's a question about moving forward

or we're gonna see less and less of those

marquee conference games

because of the nine game conference schedules.

Or we're gonna start seeing the SEC move towards

what the big 10 does,

which is basically outside of a very small handful

of games not played really anybody in the non-conference.

I for one would be disappointed by that.

I like those season openers.

I like those big non-conference games to open the year.

But that's not always the case

even with the eight game schedule.

So Georgia with two non-cons

at the beginning, two kind of cupcakes to get started.

But then nine consecutive weeks in the SEC.

And I guarantee you just,

I do not recommend playing a drinking game

where you count the number of times

that Kirby Smart says something to the effect of

weekend and week out in this conference is tough.

Every single team is tough.

Every single team has our attention.

You can't sleep on anybody.

You can't take anybody lightly.

Nine consecutive weeks in the SEC is brutal.

It's gonna be a talking point all season long.

Now of course, there's gonna be by weeks sprinkled in

notably before the Florida game.

But the way the schedule breaks down this year,

that is the only by week in the SEC schedule.

For the last several years, Georgia,

all teams across college football

have had multiple by weeks because of the,

just the way that the weeks fall after Labor Day,

I don't wanna get into the calendar.

But if you're a college football fan,

you've been following for years.

You know the way that that goes.

So only one by week on October the 24th

between Auburn and Florida.

But I mean, Georgia, Georgia goes at Arkansas,

Oklahoma, Vandy, Ad Alabama, Auburn, Florida,

at Ole Miss before finishing the season

home against Missouri at South Carolina and Georgia Tech.

We're gonna get into it in the second segment,

but what a brutal stretch of football that is going to be.

And so you look at these season wind totals,

nine and a half, how do we feel like Georgia's gonna shave?

But do we think that that's fair?

Do we think that that is a reasonable expectation?

But I do think generally, nine game conference schedules,

you're going to see, first of all,

you're going to see three lost teams

in the college football playoff.

So let's just get out in front of this.

The college football playoff is expanding.

It's going to continue to expand.

I don't, we don't have to talk about it,

but it is going to continue to be a reality.

But even without expansion,

you're going to continue to see more and more three lost teams.

You're going to continue to see more and more teams

that have quite frankly looked mediocre at times.

Bad losses in the college football playoff.

It's a new era, it's a new system.

Typically, it's like only the teams that have sort of

cruised through the regular season

that have looked at lead every step of the way.

Those are the only teams that have,

quote unquote, belonged in the college football playoff.

But that is no longer the case.

And Georgia, quite frankly, has fallen victim

to that over the last couple of years.

Because Georgia's been one of those teams won the SEC,

finished with the number two overall seed

in the college football playoff.

And it's been one of these quote unquote lesser teams,

Notre Dame, and then old Miss, that has jumped up and beat them.

I mean, on any given Saturday, we know in college football

that there's a lot of teams that can beat a lot of teams.

And so when you're playing a one game season,

you're going to see more and more things like that happen.

And it's, again, we keep saying it.

It's going to come down to not who is the best team,

but who is the hottest team that's able to go on a run.

Georgia's fallen victim to that, but that's the reality.

That's the nature of it.

And so first of all, let me start by saying,

Georgia could go under this wind total

and win the national championship.

That has never happened before in college football, I would say.

But right now, I'm looking at, there's no team in the SEC

with the wind total higher than nine and a half.

A team could go nine and three

and have a very realistic shot

of winning the national championship.

And so it just goes to show you that there's just a lot more

to college football than blowing through the regular season

and dominating all your opponents, which is good.

Because as I mentioned, there's a lot of brutal games

on this schedule.

And so let's kind of quickly look through it

and see how we feel like Georgia is going to do.

If nine and a half is a fair wind total,

if we think it should be higher, if we think it should be lower.

And we'll talk about all of that right after these.

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So nine and three win total for Georgia coming into the 2026 season.

We mentioned the schedule briefly,

but let's jump into it.

Do we think that's fair?

Tennessee State, Western Kentucky,

those are wins to a no to begin the season.

Now, let's look at this SEC start to conference play.

We mentioned it earlier at Arkansas, okay?

Should be a win for Georgia,

but to begin conference play on the road

after not really playing up to any level of competition,

a bit of a nervy start.

Home against Oklahoma, obviously,

they were a college football playoff team last year

and will be a formidable opponent.

Home against Vandy, what's Vandy gonna look like this year?

Is it going to be Jared Curtis at quarterback?

That could be a very interesting game.

So home against Vandy and then at this stretch right here,

at Alabama, home against Auburn, Florida,

and then at Ole Miss.

That four game stretch is absolutely brutal.

Now, I don't know if Auburn's gonna be ranked.

This year I don't know if Florida's gonna be ranked this year,

but you'd sprinkle in the rivalry games,

the intensity of these matchups,

what the Ole Miss game is gonna feel like

after how last year ended.

Florida in a new stadium, Auburn,

and then at Bryan Denney in Tuscaloosa,

always going to be an incredibly difficult matchup.

That's a brutal four game stretch.

Then they closed the season home against Mizzou

on the road to South Carolina and then Georgia Tech

at home to close the season.

A game that you know as a Georgia fan

has not been a cakewalk for Georgia,

either of the last two seasons.

Brent Key, it's the Super Bowl for Brent Key.

And one of these years, he's gonna win it.

One of these years,

Brent Key is gonna win this game, Georgia fans.

It's just, it is what it is.

You gotta accept it.

So what do we think about this schedule?

Nine conference games,

even if you give Georgia 3 and 0 in the non-conference,

can they escape with only two conference losses?

You look at the road games at Arkansas,

at Alabama, at Ole Miss, at South Carolina.

So you could give them at South Carolina

and at Arkansas to open and close the SEC schedule.

So they could lose at Alabama and at Ole Miss.

Can they win all of the home games?

Oklahoma, Vandy, Auburn, Florida on the neutral site?

I think to go 10 and 2 this year,

you gotta, you're gonna have to beat Georgia Tech.

Cause I do think there's two conference losses

on this slate for Georgia.

I really do.

I think 10 and 2 is probably my most likely outcome

for this Georgia team,

just based on some of the uncertainties

that we know about and the overall strength of this schedule.

I just don't see an 11 and 1 season again

for the Georgia Bulldogs.

And so I think 10 and 2 would be my most likely outcome,

although I wouldn't necessarily feel overly confident

about that, could definitely be 9 and 3.

And again, could be a college football playoff team

with a chance to win the national championship at 9 and 3.

Could be 11 and 1.

I certainly don't see this team on this schedule going 8 and 4.

I certainly don't see this team

with this schedule going 12 and I'll absolutely,

no, don't see it.

Not at this point of the season.

You're going to have to do some serious work

talking to me about some of the deficiencies

that I've seen on this football team.

I'm going to need to see a crazy pass rush.

I'm going to need to see development at corner.

I'm going to need to see development at what receiver.

I'm going to see a lot of things.

And even then this schedule, 9 conference games,

one by week, brutal weekend, week out.

The attrition that you're going to have

in a regular season, 12 and 0 would be unthinkable.

There will not be an undefeated SEC team

for the next 10 years.

That's my prediction.

10 years, there will not be, maybe never again.

There will not be an undefeated 12 and 0 regular season

SEC football team.

I just don't see it happening, like period.

I mean, it could happen for sure.

And the consumables change so much.

It could continue to change.

We don't know.

I just don't see it.

I do think 10 and 2 slightly is the lean here.

I think 9.5 is a really fair win total for Georgia.

And again, you hear 9.5 and you're

used to as a Georgia fan, the win total being 10.5.

There have been years where the win total was 11.5 for Georgia.

But those days are done.

9.5 still tied with Texas for the most wins

across the conference.

And Alabama won below that at 8.5, like LSU below that.

All missed 7.5, even though I've heard they had turned

that chance.

It's coming back for a 20th year.

And so there won't be any drop off at all because they obviously

have a better coach now than they did.

They didn't even want Lane Kiffin, which is interesting.

So you look at the other teams in the SEC.

Georgia's still right there at the top.

It's just right there at the top.

Doesn't mean what it used to mean in college football.

All right.

We got more that we're going to discuss a little bit of unfortunate

basketball situation that we're going to have to talk through.

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All right, friends, what happened with the Georgia basketball team last night?

I'd honestly like to know what happened to the Georgia basketball team.

They fought valiantly in the second half and played really well, closed that game, really

flirted with how to chance to win the game.

The way they came out in that first half was just as bad as you have ever seen as you

could possibly ever see a basketball team come out and play.

They were flat.

The shots were abysmal.

The turnovers were prolific.

It didn't help that Ole Miss came out hitting literally everything.

I mean, like throwing out prayers at the beginning of the game.

Georgia, I thought in the half court actually played pretty decent defense in the first half.

But it didn't matter because they were one of 11 at one point from three and the shooting,

the hot shooting that we have seen from Smurf Millender, from Blue Kane, from Canon Catchings,

from Jeremiah Wilkinson, from Karim Stagg.

That shooting was gone completely and totally gone and not only that, but Georgia was absolutely

getting pumped at the rim.

They were consistently driving to the basket, which is good because the shots weren't going

down, but they just weren't tough enough.

They did not seem physically ready to play.

It's concerning because that's it now before the NCAA tournament.

That's the last tune up.

That's the last time you're going to see this Georgia team before they're matched up in

a bracket in the NCAA tournament in a one game season where you've got one shot to

do something that this program hasn't done in 20 plus years, which is win a game in the

NCAA tournament.

You got one shot.

You got one game and this is the game you're coming off of, which has got to be a pretty

bad taste in this team's mouth.

It's definitely a bad taste in my mouth.

I think we crapped away the possibility of the 7C last night and that hurts, but again,

the 7C was all about the possibility of winning two games.

Let me just tell you right now.

The four one-seeds in this tournament are going to be Duke and Arizona and Florida and who's

the fourth one-seed?

Oh, Michigan.

Duke, Michigan, Florida, Arizona.

Those are going to be the four one-seeds.

Georgia has a 0.0% chance of beating any of those teams.

They're not doing it.

So, Georgia's going to be an eight or a nine seed, probably an eight, but maybe a nine.

Georgia's going to be an eight or a nine seed, meaning they are not making the sweet 16.

There's a 0.0% chance that they're making the sweet 16.

Full stop.

So you can just forget about it.

But Georgia doesn't need to make the sweet 16 for this season to be a tremendous, and

I say the word legitimately, tremendous success.

This is not me settling.

This is not me trying to make something out of nothing, trying to sweeten up, you know,

polish a turd.

Like this is the like honest facts.

When you do something you haven't done in 25 years, and by the way, that one was expunged

from the record books, and so technically speaking, they haven't done it in much longer

than that.

But they did it 25 years ago when I was in college.

When you do something you haven't done in 25 years, which is win a game in the NCAA tournament,

and you don't call that season a tremendous success, like you're delusional.

You're full blown delusional.

So Georgia needs to win a game in this tournament.

They will still have a tremendous opportunity to win a game in this tournament.

They will be matched up against a team that has a similar resume to them.

In a one game season, they have to win that game.

They're not winning the next one.

They're not going to the sweet 16.

They're not playing on the second weekend.

One game season, they have to win that game.

But that's all we needed from this Georgia team.

Progress.

The night has done nothing at Georgia but make progress.

First year, he rebuilt the dumpster fire that was Tom Kreme, and he did it miraculously.

Then he hit the portal.

The next year makes the NIT and goes on a run, and he did that incredibly, and then he

hits the portal even better.

The next year makes the NCAA tournament has a lottery pick in the NBA.

And then he hits the portal even harder and brings in his best portal class yet.

And now he makes the NCAA tournament again, he needs to win this game in the NCAA tournament.

Proof of concept, continued elevation and ascension of the program.

That's what Georgia needs from Mike White and this team this year.

It was a disappointed, I thought they had a shot to win a couple of games in the SEC tournaments,

solidify a seven seed and really prove that they were a lot better than we thought.

Right now, I think that that ship is sailed.

Because again, they're not winning multiple games in the NCAA tournament.

They're not.

They're just not.

They got to win the one.

We got to win this one game.

That will depend on whether or not the season was okay.

And not a regression, at least we've stayed put where we are and didn't

regress or whether the season is a success, a unmitigated success if we win a game in the NCAA tournament.

So when selection Sunday happens, Clinton, I will be here with you.

We'll be here that night breaking down where Georgia is in the bracket.

So if you're a basketball fan, make sure you're tuned in for that Sunday night episode.

And then we'll be with you every step of the way up until the game, whether it's on Thursday

or Friday.

And so excited to have you along for the ride.

And we will talk to you guys next time.

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