You see ESPN ranking Kirby Smart number one and all I can think about is how different building a roster was back in the 2002 season when you actually developed kids instead of shopping the portal every winter. We landed a five-star tight end the old fahioned way this year bu...
You walk into Sanford Stadium on a Thursday night for fall camp opener and the energy hits different. That first crack of pads echoing off the hedges with the lights on tells you everything you need to know. We don't do the whole "wait and see" thing around here. We reload, we refill, and we remind everybody why this place is the standard. Tennessee State is about to get a rude introduction to what real SEC football looks like under those Thursday night lights. htts://www.on3.com/teams/georgia-bulldogs/
Portal window getting nuked to winter only means one thing for USC: the staff has to nail their evals months before the season even ends. No more spring band-aids. The bagmen are already working silent commits for December.
Everyone ttalking about Bill Connelly's SP+ projections like they tell the whole story needs to remember fall camp is about. I still remember setting up the tailgate in the North Campus lot back in 2021 before we made that run and the energy was electric. Same feeling right now seeing this roster take shape. Connelly can put Texas ahead of us all he wants but watch what happens when our depth starts showing out these next few weeks.
You walk into Sanford Stadium on a Thursday night for fall camp opener and the energy hits different. That first crack of pads echoing off the hedges with the lights on tells you everything you need to know. We don't do the whole "wait and see" thing around here. We reload, we refill, and we remind everybody why this place is the standard. Tennessee State is about to get a rude introduction to what real SEC football looks like under those Thursday night lights. htts://www.on3.com/teams/georgia-bulldogs/
Just saw Bill Connelly's SEC projections have Texas behind Georgia and Alabama again. The disrespect is getting old. Sarkisian has a 62% win rate in conference play since 2023 and the Longhorns finished 2025 ranked 4th in SP+ overall. People keep pointing at the 2026 schedule like it is a gauntlet but Texas draws Texas State and UTEP in non-conference and misses both LSU and Ole Miss from the West. The 12-team playoff means 11-1 gets you in comfortably. Georgia has to replace a ton on defense and Alabama is breaking in a new QB. The path is right there lmao.
You want to talk about option football? I will tell you about option football. I remember sitting in Camp Randall in 1993 watching Brent Moss run the power option out of the I-formation and defenses knew eaxctly what was coming and still could not stop it. That was real football. You lined up, you read the end, you made a decision in half a second and if you guessed wrong a 240 pound fullback was caving your chest in. None of this RPO nonsense where the quarterback throws a screen pass to a guy who used to play receiver at three different schools. The option built this program. Barry Alvarez did not win three Rose Bowls by spreading it out and throwing 40 times a game. He won by pounding the rock, reading the option, and making the other team quit in the fourth quarter. I watch these kids now trying to run zone read and they cannot even execute a simple mesh point without fumbling. Go watch the 1994 Rose Bowl tape and see what real option football looks like.
Bill Connelly's SEC preview has Georgia and Texas in tier one and Florida stuck in that middle tier again. The Gators finished 2025 ranked 44th in SP+ which is fine but not elite. The problem is the gap between Florida and the top of the conference is actually widening. Georgia posted a 28.3 SP+ rating last season while Florida was at 12.1. That is not a talent gap that gets closed in one offseason. The Gators need to show they can hang with the top half of the SEC before anyone starts talkin...
Just saw Bill Connelly's SEC projections have Texas behind Georgia and Alabama again. The disrespect is getting old. Sarkisian has a 62% win rate in conference play since 2023 and the Longhorns finished 2025 ranked 4th in SP+ overall. People keep pointing at the 2026 schedule like it is a gauntlet but Texas draws Texas State and UTEP in non-conference and misses both LSU and Ole Miss from the West. The 12-team playoff means 11-1 gets you in comfortably. Georgia has to replace a ton on defense and Alabama is breaking in a new QB. The path is right there lmao.
Wait so Bill Connelly dropped his SEC preview and ESPN did their coach rankings and I keep seeing the same thing. Texas projected behind Georgia and Alabama again. Sarkisian ranked behind Smart and probably behind some other guys too. And I get it, Georgia has earned the benefit of the doubt. They have the 2021 and 2022 titles and they keep recruiting at an elite level. But at some point the data has to catch up to what is actually happening on the field.
Look at what Texas has done since joining the SEC. The Longhorns went 11-2 in 2024 and followed it up with a 10-3 season in 2025. That is a combined 21-5 record against a schedule that included Alabama Georgia Michigan and the full SEC slate. The program has back to back top 10 finishes for the first time since the early 2000s. And yet the preseason projections still slot Texas behind Georgia every single year like the gap is still the same as it was in 2022.
The thing that nobody wants to talk about is that Georgia has some real questions this season. The Bulldogs are replacing their entire starting secondary and lost their top two pass rushers to the NFL draft. Their offensive line has been inconsistent the last two years and they have a quarterback situation that is still unsettled. Meanwhile Texas returns a veteran offensive line that ranked top 15 nationally in sack rate allowed last season. The skill positions are reloaded with the 5-star QB and the Edge rusher from the 2026 class. The defensive front generated pressure on only 32% of dropbacks last year but the new additions should improve that number.
The SEC is still the best conference in college football and nobody is arguing that. Georgia has been the standard for the last five years and they deserve respect. But the gap between Georgia and Texas has closed significantly and the projections need to reflect that. The Longhorns have a 62% win rate in conference play since joining the SEC which is the same as Georgia over that span. If you look at the SP+ projections from last year Texas actually outperformed their preseason number by about 3 points per game. The program is trending up while Georgia is trying to reload.
I am not saying Texas should be ranked ahead of Georgia in the preseason polls. The Bulldogs have the track record and the benefit of the doubt. But putting Texas at 7 or 8 in the SEC while Georgia is 1 or 2 every year is just lazy. The data says this is a top 3 team in the conference and the gap is closing fast. If the Longhorns can stay healthy in the trenches and the new QB settles in early this could be the year the projections finally catch up to reality.
Saw that Bill Connelly dropped his previews and I just had to laugh. All these numbers and projections and not one word about what actually wins football games in the Big Ten. I remember sitting in Camp Randall in 1998 watching Ron Dayne run over Michigan State for 215 yards in a driving November rain. That was toughness. That was grit. Not some fancy formula that tells you how many yards per play someone averaged against air.
This new AD talking about bringing Texas swagger to Madison makes me sick. We don't need swagger from Austin. We need offensive linemen who want to bury someone in the fourth quarter. We need running backs who get stronger as the game goes on. Barry Alvarez built this program on hay bales and Wisconsin winters, not on watever they're selling down in the Lone Star State.
Fall camp is starting and I keep hearing about Notre Dame's fancy uniforms for Lambeau. You know what matters more than throwback jerseys? Whether our front seven can punch them in the mouth for four quarters. That's what built this program. That's what will keep us alive against the Irish at Lambeau Field. You can keep your projections. Give me a team that wants to earn every yard the hard way.
Everyone talking about Florida's playoff chances in 2026 is living in a fantasy world. Bill Connelly's SEC preview has the Gators buried in that middle tier again and honestly the data backs it up. Florida finished 2025 ranked 44th in SP+ and that was with a veteran roster. Now DJ Lagway is in the portal and the QB room is a complete question mark. The Gators ranked 78th in passing success rate last season and that was with experience. Fall camp is about to reveal just how far this offense has to climb.
The playoff projection conversation for Florida is ridiculous until the defense proves it can carry the load. The Gators ranked 112th in punt return defense allowing 12.8 yards per return and the turnover margin sat at -0.33 per game good for 93rd nationally. You don't fix those numbers in one spring practice. The SEC is stacked with Georgia and Texas in tier one and Alabama reloading through the portal. Florida's path to the 12-team playoff requires winning at least nine games and the schedule is brutal.
Stop pretending the 2027 recruiting class with 23 five-stars changes anything for this fall. Those kids aren't on campus yet. The Gators have to develop what they have right now and the SP+ projections say that's a middle of the pack SEC team. Fall camp energy is nice but the numbers don't lie about where this program sits.
Wait so Bill Connelly dropped his Big 12 preview and has Texas Tech on top again and I just read through the whole thing shaking my head. This reminds me of 2014 when nobody gave us a shot after losing our quarterback and we went to the Peach Bowl and hung with Ole Miss. These computer projections never account for what happens when you get a group of kids who actually buy in during fall camp. I watched Coach Patterson build programs with two-star kids who played four years together and knew the defense blindfolded by November.
Now we got North Carolina coming to Fort Worth for a Thursday night opener and all I hear is how we are middle of the pack. You remember what happened the last time we opened agaainst an ACC team on a Thursday? 2017 against Arkansas at the new stadium. We punched them in the mouth and the whole country saw what Fort Worth was about. That team had no business being ranked where they ended up but they had something you cannot project. They had fight.
I miss when this conference made sense. When we knew every team in the league and the rivalries meant something. Now we got teams from the West Coast and old Big East schools running around and they want me to trust some algorithm that never watched a single snap of fall camp. The portal killed continuity and these projections cannot even account for that. Give me a team that has been grinding together since January over any computer model. I will take that bet every time.
Everybody talking about the "best stadium atmospheres" in the SEC and they always leave out Thursday night at Jordan-Hare. Baylor is about to walk into that noise and have no idea what hit them.
I love about fall camp starting up? Watching our coaching staff actually develop talent instead of just recruiting over everybody every year. Bill Connelly and ESPN can run their SP+ projections all they want but they don't see what we see in practice. Our staff has been grinding since January putting these guys through position drills that actually translate to Saturdays. I was watching some of the early camp footage and the technique work our DL is getting is night and. The portal era has everybody chasing quick fixes but our coaches are building something sustainable. You watch these other programs bring in 40 transfers every winter and try to glue it together in spring ball. That's NOT coaching, that's roster management. Real coaching is taking the guys who have been in the system, teaching them how to read offenses pre-snap. We've got a staff that understands Jordan-Hare. They understaand what it means to play Thursday night in front of 87,000 people who have been tailgating since sunrise. Give me a coach who develops three-star kids into all-conference players over a recruiter who just stacks five-stars and hopes they figure it out. That's what we have. This fall I'm watching the product on the field and I already know the growth is going to show. War Eagle.
Everyone talking about Oregon's five five-stars in the 2026 class like they've already won the offseason needs to check the crystal ball on what USC is actually doing. The 247 composite has us middle of the pack right now but I'm hearing from sources that we've got silent commits from a couple of top-100 guys who are waiting to announce after spring ball wraps up. The staff is playing the long game on the bagman front and the OVs we have lined up for June are going to shake up the board. Oreg...
You see Bill Connelly's previews and ESPN's coach rankings and all I can think about is how NIL has turned this sport into free agency. Back in the 1980 season we built teams through four years of development, not a checkbook. Now these kids enter the portal faster than you can say "SEC Championship" and we are left wondering who is even on the roster come August. The loyalty is gone and I do not see it coming back.
You see these rankings where they put our coach behind Kirby Smart and some of these other guys and I just laugh. Back in the 1992 season we went 13-0 and won it all with a defense that didn't need five-star transfers every year. Now we are patching together an offensive line ...
Our WR room is going to be the most underrated group in the SEC this fall and I will stand. People keep looking at what we lost and NOT what we have brewing in that building right now. The new arrivals through the portal have broght a different kind of juice to spring practice and the competition is making everybody better. I have been watching the clips coming out of fall camp and the connection between our QB and these receivers. The timing on routes is sharper. The separation is there. This is not the same offense people watched in 2025. The coaching staff understood exactly what we needed and went out and got it. The national media can keep sleeping on our skill positions while they fawn over Texas and Georgia. They will learn when this group starts stacking explosive plays at Jordan-Hare. We have a legitimate deep threat again. We have guys who can win contested catches. We have speed that defenses will have to respect. This is the most complete WR room we have fielded in years. Mark it down now. Our passing game takes a massive step forward in 2026 and people will act surprised when they should have seen it coming.
Watched the 2026 Big 12 preview and all I hear is Texas Tech this, Texas Tech that. Reminds me of the old days when we actually recruited kids from Texas high schools who grew up wanting to be Frogs, not the highest bidder. NIL killed that lloyalty. We used to build with four-y...
Fall camp is open and I keep seeing the same lazy narratives about Texas in the SEC. everybody wants to talk about the five-star skill guys and the QB battle but nobody is looking at the special teams numbers that actually cost this program games in 2025. The Longhorns finished ranked 67th in punt return average last season at 7.1 yards per return. That is NOT good enough for a program with this much speed on the roster. Meanwhile the coverage unit allowed 9.4 yards per punt return which is middle of the pack SEC at best. You cannot win a conference title when your special teams are giving away hidden yardage every single week.
Mark my words. By week 3 of this season the new special teams coordinator will have this unit looking completely different. The Longhorns brought in a kickoff specialist through the portal who averaged 62.3 yards per kickoff with a 73% touchback rate at his previous stop. That alone saves 15-20 yards of field position per drive compared to what Texas was getting last year. The return game is getting a complete overhaul too with freshmen who actually have elite return instincts instead of just fair catching everything.
People forget that Georgia and Alabama have been winning the field position battle for years and that starts with special teams. Texas has the offensive firepower to hang with anyone but if they keep giving away 5-7 yards per drive on special teams they will never get over the hump in the SEC. The data says this is the single most fixable problem on the roster and the staff knows it. Watch the kickoff coverage numbers in fall camp scrimmages. If those are improving the ceiling for this team goes way up.
ESPN can rank their coaches all they want but Kirby Smart is the best coach in this program's history and it is not even close. I will die on this hill. I watched Vince Dooley win a national title in 1980 with Herschel and that was special but the game was completely different. Dooley coached against option offenses and wishbone teams where you could line up and run it down their throats. Kirby has had to adapt to spread offenses, tmpo, the transfer portal, NIL nonsense that destroyed roster loyalty, and still won two national titles in a four year stretch.
You want to talk about building a program? Dooley had the same 22 kids for four years and could develop them slow. Kirby has to replace half his roster every offseason because these kids chase a bag or transfer for more playing time. He won a national title in 2022 with a defense that had five guys drafted in the first round and then turned around and won another one in 2024 with a completely different group of players. That is coaching. That is program building.
Mark Richt won 10 games every year and we loved him for it but he never got over the hump. Kirby has taken us to three national title games in six years. The man has built a machine that reloads instead of rebuilds. I do not care what ESPN's list says or who they put at number one. Kirby Smart is the best coach in the country and he is the best coach Georgia has ever had. Period. End of story.
