Good morning DawgNation, hope you’re getting ready for a great weekend! There should be lots of excitement around UGA.

The Diamond Dawgs are set to begin the NCAA Regional. Georgia stands among the College World Series favorites, but the path ahead will be challenging. The good news is that UGA fans seem to be fired up for the opportunity.

The next few weeks should be fun.

That’s also true when it comes to UGA football recruiting. DawgNation recruiting insider Jeff Sentell set the stage for this weekend’s impressive crop of official visitors on his show, Before the Hedges, earlier this week.

Jeff says the visits this weekend by 4-star edge rusher Khamari Brooks and 5-star tight end Kaiden Prothro are the two most significant to observe. So, we’ll be watching them closely.

For the rest of the news, check out our coverage below.

Trivia time

When was the last time Georgia advanced to the College World Series?

Happy guessing! Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.

Get ready to watch Georgia football at 3:30 p.m.

Five Georgia football games now have game times and TV networks, as ESPN announced its preliminary plans for the fall schedule.

All five of the Georgia games that were announced — Marshall, Austin Peay, at Tennessee, vs. Florida and vs. Georgia Tech — will air at 3:30 p.m. ET.

The biggest three games — Tennessee, Florida and Georgia Tech — will all air on ABC. The Georgia Tech game is set to be played on Black Friday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The Marshall game, set for Aug. 30, will air on ESPN. This will in all likelihood be Gunner Stockton’s first start in Sanford Stadium. The following game against Austin Peay will air on ESPN+/SEC Network+.

All in all, Georgia fans are likely to be pretty happy with this slate. The Florida game has almost always been a 3:30 p.m. start. Given that the Tennessee game will be played in Knoxville, Georgia fans are likely happy that the game isn’t a night start.

Chiefly, the first two home games are not noon kickoffs. Marshall might be one of the worst Group of Six teams in the country after the program was gutted by the transfer portal. Peay is an FCS foe.

Georgia has bigger games on the schedule, with Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss all set to come to Athens. If that means playing a few more games early in the afternoon to make sure those games are played under the lights at Sanford Stadium, most Georgia fans would make that deal.

For more on Georgia’s 2025 schedule, check out Connor Riley’s story below.

Game times, TV networks announced for five Georgia football games

Georgia-Tennessee game time another ramification of Nico Iamaleava transfer

Georgia and Tennessee were both playoff teams last season. They’ve been traditional rivals since the SEC Championship game was introduced. They are two of the premier brands in the SEC.

Yet for the first slate of conference games, ESPN elected to air Florida’s trip to LSU instead of the Georgia-Tennessee game.

Florida and LSU both have exciting quarterbacks in DJ Lagway and Garrett Nussmeier. Georgia has Stockton, who is much more of an unknown than Lagway and Nussmeier.

Tennessee’s quarterback situation is a giant mystery following Nico Iamaleava’s decision to transfer to UCLA.

The Volunteers grabbed UCLA quarterback Joey Aguilar out of the transfer portal. It also has redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and freshman George MacIntyre on scholarship.

Tennessee has not had a ton of success against Georgia, with its last win over the Bulldogs coming back in 2016. This is a massive game for the program and Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel.

Yet ESPN doesn’t see it as nearly as big a game, at least in comparison to the Florida-LSU game.

In the end, it likely helps Georgia that this game won’t be played under the lights. This will be Stockton’s first career road start.

The absence of Iamaleava looms large in this matchup.

Georgia baseball to turn to Leighton Finley on Friday

The Georgia baseball team begins NCAA Tournament play today when it takes on Binghamton.

First pitch is set for 12:06 p.m., with the SEC Network broadcasting the game.

The man throwing that first pitch for Georgia is Leighton Finley. The Bulldogs opted to go with the junior right-hander over Brian Curley, who has largely worked as the Friday starter in SEC play.

Finley is 2-2 on the season with a 5.08 ERA. Finley does have NCAA Tournament experience, as he started the first game of last year’s tournament run.

It was not Finley’s best start, as he lasted 3.2 innings and gave up four runs. He did not factor into the decision, as Georgia went on to win 8-7.

Finley helped Georgia close out Georgia Tech to win the regional and started in the team’s Super Regional against NC State.

Head coach Wes Johnson hopes all that experience makes a difference for Finley against Binghamton.

“Yeah, I know Leighton’s been throwing the ball extremely well,” Johnson said on Thursday. “He had one hiccup in Alabama, but other than that … Man, attacking the strike zone with three pitches. The other thing you think about in these kind of environments is Leighton closed out a regional for us last year. Just that experience of a guy getting you out there, getting you off to a good start. I think all those things are things we were looking at.”

While Finley will play a significant role in today’s game, how Georgia hits will determine how they go. The Bulldogs led the country in home runs this season and they enter the postseason with a healthy Robbie Burnett. He has hit 20 home runs this season despite dealing with a hamstring injury.

Should Georgia win against Binghamton, it would face the winner of Duke-Oklahoma State on Saturday at 6 p.m.

For more on the Athens Regional, check out Riley’s story below.

Georgia baseball knows it has to do whatever it takes to win as Bulldogs begin NCAA Tournament play

Advertisement

Photo of the Day

The Georgia football "Savage Pads" will appear in the upcoming College Football 2026 video.

Credit: Screenshot via Georgia football Twitter

Quote of the Day

Wes Johnson on the goal of getting to Omaha and the College World Series:

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s pressure, right? Pressure is just something you apply to yourself and it creates illusions. I think, you know, I think, yes, that’s one of our goals, right? Just like being a national seed was a goal. You want to have a chance to play at home. It doesn’t guarantee you’re going to get to Omaha. It doesn’t guarantee you’re going to win regionals and super regionals. It’s just something that lets you know that, yeah, we’re moving in the right direction. It still comes back to playing clean baseball. Not giving the other team freebies, not chasing, not doing things on the basepath that give them free outs. So when you look at it, it’s like, yes, those are your goals, but then your practice and your preparation should, you know, lead to hopefully you achieving those goals, right? So at the end of the day, yes, but it’s still going to come down to us playing clean baseball.”

College World Series or bust for Georgia Baseball?

Wes Johnson has pushed all the right buttons in his first two seasons in Athens.

He once again has Georgia as a regional, and potentially Super Regional, host. The Bulldogs lost the best player in college baseball in Charlie Condon and made up for it in the aggregate.

Now comes the hard part for Johnson.

Georgia made it to Super Regionals a season ago before falling to NC State in three games. The Bulldogs were a win away from advancing to Omaha, Nebraska.

That is now the challenge this time around for Georgia.

Johnson acknowledged there is pressure on this team to break through and go to a place Georgia hasn’t been since Matthew Stafford was on campus.

Georgia will be expected to get through its regional this weekend. The Bulldogs are 29-4 at home this season and will look to ride the Foley Field faithful into another Super Regional.

To get to the College World Series, Georgia first has to take care of business this weekend. It expects to, as it looks to take the next step.

Advertisement

Trivia answer

2008