Georgia missed the College Football Playoff in 2024 after winning back-to-back national titles, but ESPN’s Greg McElroy thinks they have a strong chance of making it to the 12-team competition.
As a former national championship quarterback at Alabama and current ESPN analyst, Greg McElroy is one of college football’s leading voices. On a recent edition of his Always College Football Podcast, McElroy took a look at which SEC teams have a good chance at making the 12-team college football playoff in 2024. The Bulldogs, even with a tough schedule, were at the top of his list.
“Heading into the 2024 season I’d probably have them No. 1. Ohio State, with their run and what they’ve done in the portal the last couple of weeks, maybe they will jump right in front of the Bulldogs. But either way, Georgia, with what they return, is in a great spot. You can’t go 29-1 in your last 30 games and not be at or near the top of the rankings.” began McElroy.
“You also bring back your quarterback Carson Beck in the second year as a starter, his fifth year in the program. I think he’s unbelievable. I think he’s such a great player. And you look at the recruiting classes that have surrounded him. They finished in the top four pretty much every single year. They’ve also finished at the top twice.”
With Carson Beck back and some elite transfers coming in, McElroy seems sold on the offense, but the drop-off the defense saw in 2023 has him worried.
“They’re going to be able to move the football. We know offensively, they’re going to be excellent. They have maybe the best quarterback in the SEC. But defensively what we’ve seen from Georgia in the past hasn’t been quite the same. If you look at their defense last year, there were ups and downs. There were some really good moments. There were also some moments where it’s like, ‘Man, they’re getting gashed on the ground’. Missouri game comes to mind, Bama game comes to mind. So I looked at their you know, the way things have kind of set up defensively. I do think that that group hopefully will take a step because they played a lot of youth on that side of the ball last year. At one point they had four freshmen in the starting lineup
One thing that could get in Georgia’s way is a brutal schedule. The Bulldogs open the season in Atlanta against a good Clemson team and have road trips to Kentucky, Alabama, Texas, and Ole Miss.
“I also look at the schedule to schedule is a lot more difficult than it’s been the last couple of years. You get Clemson there in the nonconference, that’ll be in Atlanta. That’ll be a difficult game. You go to Ole Miss. You go to Alabama, you go to Texas. Those are maybe the three best teams there in the SEC outside of Georgia. So very difficult road trips for Georgia and think that they’re going to go 12-0… I have a hard time envisioning that. But 10-2, 11-1 at the very worst.”
“I look at this past year, they finished sixth [in the College Football Playoff rankings]. That was with a loss in the SEC championship game, like I said, [the] schedule is much more difficult, but I think the committee will give them the benefit of the doubt because if you’re looking at the at-large teams, assuming they don’t win the SEC, who’s got a better roster than the Georgia Bulldogs? So I think it’s [a] 90% chance they’re in the 12-team field next year.”
