Feel free to hate on Kirby Smart as much as you want because of all the arrests and problems in the Bulldogs camp, however, you still cannot deny that he and his team are destined for greatness this year. On the AP preseason polls itself, the Bulldogs are leading on the No.1 rank with around 1532 votes. Smart has a solid track record with his team as well. He went on to grab 2 national titles and has only managed to lose 3 games in 3 years. Like RJ Young had mentioned back on Fox Sports, “Georgia is loaded with veterans”. Not only that, they also have 14 starters coming back from the 2023 squad. Which also has the crowd favorite, Carson Beck.

Now on The Devy Royale on August 15th we got Kevin Coleman and Christian Williams talking about Georgia’s offense and defense and how Beck would be the critical factor in it. “I think he’s going to develop—he could be the QB1 of the class,” Coleman mentioned. Beck went a solid 4000 yards last year and also managed to record a completion rate of 72%. However, that ain’t the biggest concern right now. When talking about the defense, Coleman mentioned one important thing. “We see those defensive linemen getting after guys—they didn’t have that last year,” Coleman said. While the Bulldogs have been impressive when it came down to run defenses and pass defense, the main area where they truly lacked last season was sacking the QB and making good turnovers. In 2023, the Bulldogs versus the Crimson Tide match, we saw how lacking the entire defense was. Smart’s team failed to stop 2 rushes and TDs from Jam Miller and Jermaine Burton. This ultimately led to Alabama winning 27-24.

“I do think that this defense, while the name recognition once again, is not as high as maybe the 2021-2022 teams,” Williams mentioned while talking about the entire thing. The 2022 Bulldogs defense was peak. We saw the greatness back during the Tides vs Bulldogs SEC championship match. QB Stetson Bennett was there and helped in securing 2 important TDs in the 4th quarter, making the Bulldogs the champs that year. This year requires the same energy, and Smart needs to gear up and learn from the mistakes he made back in 2023. Carson Beck needs those openings from the defense. However, looks like things aren’t gonna be in the favor of Smart and the young QB.

Injury at camp

Back on August 13th, DawgNation brought us what Kirby Smart had to say regarding all the injuries post-fall camp. “We have a lot of guys that are soft tissue, beat up, banged up, and we’re trying to get them back,” Smart had mentioned. The O-line has taken a massive hit. 6 major players sustained injuries that ranged from hamstring injuries to Achilles. Warren Brinson, Jordan Hall, Jared Wilson, Smael Mondon, Chaz Chambliss, and Roderick Robinson are all the players who are currently in the recovery process.

This is a mirror image of what happened to Shedeur last year. While there was no injury, the Buffs lacked a solid O-line. This led to Shedeur becoming the most sacked QB in the 2023 season. With no proper way of defending the QB, Kirby Smart could see Beck face a similar situation. While the kid is amazing when it comes down to playing from the pocket, this ain’t a solo game, and a team effort is needed to secure a win. Let’s hope Smart is smart enough to figure something out.