ESPN analyst: ‘I might have Georgia as my No. 1 team in college football’

ESPN college football analyst Cole Cubelic mentioned he might have the Georgia Bulldogs as the top team in the nation heading into 2021.

Georgia is in great position to make a deep run in the 2021 college football season. Returning tons of star power on both sides of the ball, the only real question mark lies in the secondary, where UGA loses a lot of experience.

Almost all preseason rankings have Georgia as a top-five team entering 2021, but I’m yet to see anywhere have the Dawgs at No. 1.

It looks like we’ll have to wait (and hope) for SEC Network college football analyst Cole Cubelic to release his preseason top-25, in which he just might have Georgia sitting at No. 1.

“Coach Monken can go through his entire offseason knowing who his guy is and exactly what that offense is going to look like,” Cubelic on the Paul Finebaum show.

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“Paul, I might have Georgia as my No. 1 team in college football heading into the season and I’m not sure there’s another team in that is going to be close to them in the east.”

Georgia’s offense, though inconsistent throughout a majority of the 2020 season, is in great shape to be one of the nation’s best groups in 2021. And that’s in large part thanks to the return of quarterback JT Daniels, who did not receive an opportunity to line up under center for the Dawgs until the latter part of 2020.

But once he got his chance, everything changed. Georgia’s group of stud receivers started having great games, due to the ball actually being thrown to them rather than near them.

The Bulldogs’ running game also opened up and Zamir White looked like the superstar that he is.

Expect more of the same this season. Georgia returns a number of star receivers, an impressive stable of ball carriers and plenty of talent on the offensive line.

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PFF releases 2020 CFB power rankings: Where’s Georgia football?

Where does Georgia football rank in these preseason CFB rankings?

Now that optimism surrounding the 2020 college football season has begun to return, it’s now that time of year where it is acceptable to start looking through preseason rankings.

Pro Football Focus (PFF) released its college football power rankings for the 2020 season this week and was awfully kind to the Southeastern Conference, including nine SEC teams in its top-25.

Georgia checked in at No. 5 on the list, which is in the neighborhood of where most have had the Bulldogs this offseason. Anywhere between 4-6 is what I would consider realistic.

On Georgia, PFF wrote:

Georgia has to replace its two starting tackles (both first-round picks in 2020) and quarterback Jake Fromm, but does boast impressive sophomore receiver George Pickens (0.44 win shares in 2019).

The nine SEC teams include:

Alabama (3), LSU (4), Georgia (5), Florida (6), Auburn (10), Texas A&M (14), Tennessee (19), Kentucky (20), Mississippi State (25).

Just a few quick thoughts:

Florida at No. 6? I know a lot of sites have had the Gators high, but I’m not seeing it.

Auburn at No. 10 is also a pretty popular placement for the Tigers. And that’s fine, but don’t be surprised when they finish with five losses again.

But then I saw Tennessee at No. 19 and had to do a double-take. This is the same Tennessee that lost to Georgia State and BYU. As far as I’m considered they have no business being in the top-25.

Here’s the full top-ten:

1. Clemson

2. Ohio State

3. Alabama

4. LSU

5. Georgia

6. Florida

7. Oklahoma

8. Notre Dame

9. Penn State

10. Auburn

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ESPN’s FPI ranks Georgia, LSU football lower than expected

The Georgia Bulldogs made the FPI’s preseason top ten once again, but the Dawgs and Tigers are rated too lowly by ESPN’s FPI.

The Georgia Bulldogs made the FPI’s preseason top ten once again. The Dawgs check in tenth in the rankings. LSU comes in at twelfth. Here’s a description of ESPN’s FPI:

The Football Power Index (FPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season. FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 10,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule. Ratings and projections update daily.

Here’s the rankings of the top 25 SEC teams:

Should Georgia be ranked higher? I think so. The Dawgs return so many studs on defense that they deserve to be a few spots higher than Texas and Texas A&M.

Both Georgia and LSU should be ranked above Texas A&M. It’s rare to take the side of the Tigers, but they’re defending national champions and return lots of talent.

FPI, to put it simply, is not an extremely accurate measure of the college football universe. For instance, who was first in FPI after last season? You’d think 15-0 LSU would be, but they’re third behind first-rated Ohio State and second-rated Clemson.

In last season’s preseason FPI rankings, Georgia was rated third. It did correctly pick two of the four playoff teams (LSU and Clemson), but it missed on numerous teams like Michigan (5th), UCLA (20th), Tennessee (15th), and South Carolina (18th).

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