There will be real. college. football. games. this. weekend.
Let that sink in.
We’ll have to wait an extra week to see Georgia’s opener against Tennessee State, but still.
It might only be August, but I wanted to start off the newsletter with this quote from Georgia receiver Sacovie White-Helton that makes it clear the Bulldogs have big end goals for this season:
“We’re focused on one goal, and that’s getting to a national championship and winning one. And we all understand that the role we need to have for this team to be where it needs to be in January — at the end of January, and whatever that may be — it’s definitely not listening to somebody outside of here.”
Speaking of January:
National media bowl projections predict end-of-season outcome
The national media seems to agree that the Bulldogs are a national championship contender. Throughout the various bowl projections, most in the national media view Georgia as a College Football Playoff team.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and Kyle Bonagura both have Georgia making the College Football Playoff. Bonagura has Georgia earning the No. 5 seed and hosting No. 12 Boise State before losing to No. 4 Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl. Schlabach has Georgia as the No. 2 seed and beating No. 7 Miami before falling to No. 3 Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
Brett McMurphy of On3 has Georgia as the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff. McMurphy has Georgia beating No. 6 Miami in the Peach Bowl before losing to No. 2 Oregon in the semifinals.
Brad Crawford of CBS Sports also pegs Georgia as the No. 3 team in his College Football Playoff rankings. Crawford did not predict how the College Football Playoff would turn out beyond the Bulldogs facing Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl.
Andy Staples of On3 has Georgia as the No. 6 seed in his College Football Playoff rankings before beating Indiana, Oregon, Michigan and Notre Dame en route to winning a national championship.
Georgia has not had much success in the College Football Playoff since it expanded to 12 teams, as the Bulldogs have gone one-and-done in each of the past two seasons.
Heading into 2026, the Bulldogs know they have to play at their best at the end of the season.
Report: Former Georgia DB plans to file lawsuit, enter transfer portal
Former Georgia defensive back JaCorey Thomas is trying to get one last crack at playing college football.
And it appears he’s willing to go to court to do so.
According to a report from Pete Nakos of On3, Thomas plans to file a lawsuit in order to gain eligibility and enter the transfer portal. Doing so would allow him the ability to play elsewhere should he be granted a temporary restraining order.
Thomas spent his first four years in Athens, emerging as a starting safety for the Bulldogs last season. Thomas had 45 tackles for Georgia last season and a sack which occurred in the SEC championship game.
Sixteen athletes last week were granted a temporary restraining order to return to college for one more season and enter the transfer portal in Louisiana. One of those 16, former Ole Miss tight end Dae’Quan Wright, plans to sign with LSU after suiting up for the Cleveland Browns during the NFL preseason.
According to a report from Rusty Mansell of UGAsports.com, Georgia had added wide receiver Cole Speer back to the 2026 roster. However, Georgia coach Kirby Smart did not confirm that Speer had officially rejoined the team.
“Well, there’s a lot of assumptions in what you just said,” Smart said. “So I wouldn’t make any assumptions right now with the NCAA and the rulings and the things going on. So he is not officially back with the team. We’ve had conversations with he and a lot of guys, but nothing’s official yet.”
The original temporary restraining order granted by Colorado Judge Charlotte Sweeney that gave all 2022 prospects an extra year was granted a stay, meaning those players are not eligible to play this season. Players can still file individual lawsuits, as Thomas plans to, in hopes of getting separate temporary restraining orders against the NCAA.
Quarterback who hates Georgia ‘a lot’ named Florida starter
Florida, Georgia’s biggest football rival according to some, has named its starting quarterback and it’s a player who has said he hates the Bulldogs “a lot.”
Aaron Philo, the all-time passing yardage leader in Georgia high school football history after attending Prince Avenue Christian School, will be the first Gators QB under center when they open the season Sept. 5 at home against Florida Atlantic.
As much as Georgia fans will be wary of Philo — who transferred to Florida this past offseason from Georgia Tech — they will also be aware of the Gators’ new offensive coordinator and play caller, Buster Faulkner.
Faulkner, of course, was on Smart’s staff as a quality control coach and quarterbacks coach when the Bulldogs won back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022.
Faulkner was more pivotal than his title suggests, as the relationship between Stetson Bennett IV and Todd Monken, UGA’s offensive coordinator at the time, had soured to the point where Bennett said he wasn’t talking to Monken during games and Faulkner was the go-between.
“He (Faulkner) has been extremely important. He’s the one that runs the drill program and just talks ball,” Bennett said in a 2022 DawgNation interview.
“I think probably the main thing that he’s helped at is on the sidelines. He is the mediator between me and Monk. Me and Monk don’t really talk during the games, which I think is probably a good thing because we’re both so (passionate), yeah.
“Buster listens to what Monk says and filters it out. Obviously, he doesn’t tell me everything,” Bennett said. “People say stuff in the heat of the moment and I don’t need to hear all of that it. Just because it’s the nature of the job. He doesn’t need to hear what I have to say. It’s just not important.”
Faulkner is better known for the job he did against Georgia while at Georgia Tech, helping to lead the Yellow Jackets to a near-upset of the Bulldogs in Athens in 2024.
Georgia Tech quarterback Aaron Philo (left) gets off a pass during the second half against Gardner-Webb in November in Atlanta. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)
Georgia Tech quarterback Aaron Philo participates in the first day of football practice in July 2025 in Atlanta. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)
Prince Avenue Christian quarterback Aaron Philo was a 2023 AJC Super 11 selection. (Jason Getz/AJC)
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Trivia time
Georgia leads the nation with consecutive bowl game appearances. How long is the streak?
Will Georgia football still have an elite roster in 2028?
During the Smart years, Georgia and a recruiting haul ranked annually among the nation’s Top 3 classes have gone together like red and black.
Except last year.
That crop of Bulldogs ranked ninth nationally on the 247Sports national Team Composite rankings. The Rivals Industry Ranking had the Dawgs at third overall, but the 2026 class was generally considered the third-best in the SEC.
And now there’s this cycle. The current 20-member class has just 12 prospects rated 4 stars or higher.
The 247Sports Team Composite ranks this cycle at No. 9 nationally. The Rivals Industry Ranking has UGA at No. 14 overall. That’s seventh in the SEC.
To put that in the proper light, Smart’s classes finished no worse than No. 4 nationally from 2017 to 2025. There were six classes that ranked No. 1 or No. 2 overall.
This trend, set in the thick of the transactional NIL era, is going in the opposite direction.
Is the time coming when Georgia will no longer have a clear edge in talent over almost all the SEC? What about nationally?
Will that trend bring Georgia back to the pack? Since 2017, those elite recruiting classes have built teams that have averaged 10.9 wins per season.
In the short term, the 2026 and 2027 rosters are still scattered, smothered and covered in talent. Georgia’s 2023, 2024 and 2025 classes ranked second, first and second nationally, respectively.
The forecast gets interesting beginning with the 2028 team. With the way things are trending, will the Dawgs still have an elite lineup in 2028?
The quick-and-sloppy answer there is still very good. It just won’t resemble the assembly line of talent that DawgNation has grown accustomed to. The number of former 5-stars on the 2028 roster is projected to be half of what it has been compared to the first 11 years of the Smart era.
The number of former Top 200 recruits projected to be in the two-deep for 2028 looks like 25 blue-chips. That’s good, but nowhere near the classes UGA has traditionally stacked. The Bulldogs typically sign approximately 15 elite Top 200 prospects each cycle.
The Dawgs brought in just 12 signees who were Top 200 overall national recruits for the last cycle. They currently hold commitments from just seven Top 200 prospects in the 2027 class.
