Perspective is everything with Georgia.
In each of the last 2 seasons, the Dawgs were the preseason No. 1 team in the AP Poll and they failed to reach the semifinals. By Georgia standards, that was a disappointment. In that same 2-year stretch, we also watched UGA post a 24-4 record with consecutive SEC Championship visits, an SEC title and a pair of top-7 finishes, which marked the 8th consecutive season that happened. That “disappointing” 2-year stretch matched the best 2-year stretch of the Mark Richt era when UGA went 24-4 with consecutive top-7 finishes in 2002-03.
The perspective of Georgia has changed in a significant way during this decade of Kirby Smart. That’s right. This is Year 10 for Smart in Athens. Time flies when you’re winning a ton of games. That’s what I always say.
Entering Year 10, Georgia’s perspective is that of a program “that isn’t being talked about” in preseason conversations even though the Dawgs are the clear leader in the clubhouse for the unofficial title of “Team of the Decade” at the halfway point of the 2020s.
Perhaps we’re asking more questions than usual with Georgia, but make no mistakes. The positives? They’re aplenty.
There’s no better time to be positive than talkin’ season. That’s what I always say. Each of the next 16 days, we’ll look at the best things about each SEC team. This daily series will align with the SEC Network Takeover, which runs from Saturday, June 28 until July 13, AKA just before talkin’ season officially kicks off at SEC Media Days on July 14.
Mark your calendars! ?️The @SECNetwork Takeover returns June 28-July 13Each of the 16 @SEC schools will takeover the network for a day of school-centric programming with 24 hours of the year's best momentsMore on #SECNTakeover ➡️ t.co/LJHK4ml6wk pic.twitter.com/WScfaJo7Tp
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) June 23, 2025For those keeping track at home, that’s alphabetical order.
So far, here are the teams that we’ve done:
Alabama Arkansas Auburn FloridaToday, we’ll continue with the best things about Georgia in 2025:
Best offensive player: Dillon Bell, WR
It’s strange that there’s not a clear answer to this question. Georgia’s 3 All-SEC offensive linemen from 2024 are off to the NFL, Gunner Stockton has 1 career start at quarterback, the tight ends (Oscar Delp and Lawson Luckie) didn’t produce like UGA hoped they would in a post-Brock Bowers world and the well-documented drops issues at receiver led to significant turnover at the position. UGA lacks proven offensive players, and while guys like USC transfer Zachariah Branch and second-year running back Nate Frazier are full of potential — I outlined why I’ve got a conservative 2025 outlook for Frazier — I’d rather go with someone who has shown that he can take over a game in a variety of ways.
Ergo, Bell is the best returning offensive player.
To be clear, I’m not saying he had the best offensive season in 2024, though on a team that lacked contested-catch guys, he was the best with 13 such grabs while the rest of the team had 16 combined. Still, it was strange to see how little Bell moved around the formation after he showed off a ton of versatility in 2023. His snap count didn’t reflect creativity:
Outside WR: 553 snaps Slot WR: 41 snaps Backfield: 11 snaps Inline: 1 snapsYou could point to the midseason Colbie Young suspension and say that changed things, but when the Miami (FL) transfer was active, Bell played 178 of his 201 (89%) of his snaps on the outside. With Young back to pair alongside incoming Texas A&M transfer Noah Thomas, there’s an expectation that we’ll see Bell freed up a bit more to be Georgia’s Swiss Army Knife even with Branch locking up snaps out of the slot. I’m confident that Bell can be an even better version of the player that he was in 2023 when he could take over a game with clutch plays through the air (Tennessee) and on the ground (South Carolina).
Instead of the storyline being that Bell isn’t capable of being a prototypical outside receiver — his 6 drops were part of the well-documented problem in that room — the discussion will shift back to Bell’s role as an unselfish, dynamic weapon.
Best defensive player: CJ Allen, LB
While I’ll admit that 2024 wasn’t the Year 2 I expected from Allen, I’ll continue to be a believer for a variety of reasons. One is that the instincts that he displayed as a starter late in his true freshman season had me thinking he was the second coming of Nakobe Dean. Maybe that’s an unfair thing to put on an 18-year-old, but I’m still not willing to back down from that after an up-and-down Year 2.
In Year 3, Allen should feel more confident in the Smart/Glenn Schumann defense. PFF still had him graded as the SEC’s No. 2 linebacker against the run, and he was second on the team in tackles. The foundation is there. Getting him to react and become even more instinctive by blowing up plays in the backfield is the next step. In 2024, he had 3 tackles for loss, only 1 of which came vs. SEC competition. He didn’t record a sack in 87 pass-rushing snaps, but he was No. 2 among SEC linebackers with 17 quarterback hurries behind teammate Jalon Walker (he had 22 on 195 pass-rushing snaps), and he led that group with 4 batted passes.
Allen was asked to do a lot in Year 2. He has to be better at getting to ball-carriers in the backfield and holding his own in coverage (he did have the dagger interception to fend off Florida). If he can do those 2 things, we’re talking about someone with legitimate All-America upside in Year 3.
And if not, well, just pretend that I put KJ Bolden in this spot.
Best freshman: Elijah Griffin, DL
It’s cliché to just slot the highest-ranked recruit in this spot, but hear me out. Griffin had 88 (!) TFLs in his final 3 seasons of high school ball. He’s next. That doesn’t mean that he’ll be Jalen Carter 2.0, especially as a true freshman. But there’s legitimate buzz that he’s going to have an impact from the jump after a decorated high school career. Georgia offered the Savannah Christian Prep star when he was in 8th grade.
As crazy as it sounds, Griffin could elevate the floor of this Georgia defensive line, which dealt with atypical consistency issues in 2024. UGA was only 9th in the SEC in rushing yards/carry allowed (3.7), and it was 8th with 6.2 TFLs per game. Mind you, that was with a pair of first-rounders in the front 7 with the aforementioned Walker and Mykel Williams. Georgia is also replacing NFL-bound and fellow former Savannah Christian Prep star Warren Brinson, who gave Griffin a stamp of approval on his way to the NFL. Griffin can step into that 2-deep and establish himself as a defensive cornerstone for a national championship contender.
Best game: Week 5, vs. Alabama
Nobody can take 2021 away from Georgia. Smart got over the Alabama hump and brought home UGA’s first national title in 41 years (in case you didn’t hear). It’s not the monkey on UGA’s back anymore, but it’s a step below that. How? Since 2017, Smart is 1-6 against Alabama and 96-8 against everyone else. Of course, none of those Alabama games occurred in Athens.
Finally, that changes in 2025.
Georgia hosting Alabama for the first time in a decade will be one of the most anticipated games of the entire 2025 season. We can debate whether it’s a bummer that it won’t have Playoff-or-bust implications, especially in September, but let’s not diminish a premier matchup. Can Georgia bounce back after last year’s tale of 2 halves? Or will this be another game in which Smart is out-coached by his former team? We’ll found out those questions soon enough.
Best reason for improvement: A quiet(ish) offseason
After some loud offseasons in recent memory for on- and off-field reasons, 2025 has had a rather quiet tone to it. Maybe that’s just a byproduct of both not needing to exorcise these national title demons while not having a coach on the hot seat. Whatever the case, Georgia will likely enter 2025 outside of the preseason top 4 in the AP Poll. Why? The Gunner Stockton experience was a mixed bag and UGA lacks proven commodities on both sides of the ball.
But dare I say, that’ll be music to Smart’s ears. In the last 8 seasons, UGA started outside of the top 4 twice. What happened in those instances, you ask? A national title berth in 2017 and a national title season in 2021. UGA even endured in-season quarterback changes in both of those years and still played for all the marbles. It helped that Smart’s defenses were off-the-charts good in both of those seasons, but again, context is everything.
The 2025 context for UGA is that it has a roster that, if Smart can push the right buttons, should be as hungry as that 2021 squad was. Will it have the depth and talent to pull off a similar run? Time will tell if that’s too high of a bar to set.
But for now, Smart can hope that a quiet(ish) offseason is the preamble for a return to the national championship stage.
The best things about Georgia in 2025 Saturday Down South.
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