The Georgia Bulldogs will take the field for the first time this season on Saturday, as they take on the Oregon Ducks.

The game is one of the most interesting matchups of the opening weekend. No. 3 Georgia comes in after winning last season’s national championship. No. 11 Oregon has a new head coach in Dan Lanning, who was the defensive coordinator on last season’s Georgia team.

This will be a drastically different looking Georgia team, given the Bulldogs lost 15 players to the NFL draft. Five of those were taken in the first round of the draft, all of them coming on the defensive side of the ball.

But there’s still a lot of talent in Athens, even on that defensive side of the ball. Jalen Carter is seen as one of the best defenders in the country. Kelee Ringo is primed for a big season as is senior outside linebacker Nolan Smith.

There’s still enough talent coming back for Georgia to make life very difficult for Oregon and its likely starting quarterback, Bo Nix, according to Tom Fornelli of CBSSports.

“I expect the Georgia defense will remain one of the best in the country, even with the players it lost,” Fornelli wrote. “Kirby Smart and his staff have done too good a job of recruiting that side of the ball to expect a drop-off.”

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To Fornellli’s point, Georgia has been one of the best recruiting powers in recent seasons. The Bulldogs signed the No. 3 ranked recruiting class for the 2022 recruiting cycle, with freshmen such as wide receiver Dillon Bell, tight end Oscar Delp, defensive end Mykel Williams and safety Malaki Starks all poised to make an impact on Saturday against the Ducks.

247Sports recently updated its team talent composite rankings for the 2022 season. Even with the exodus of talent from the program this offseason, Georgia still has the No. 2 team in the country in said metric, nestled between Ohio State at No. 3 and Alabama at No. 1.

“So, while Georgia lost a ton of production off its national title-winning team, the 2022 version of the Bulldogs is no less talented,” Chris Hummer wrote. “Georgia should be right back in the mix for a national championship.”

To give a perfect sense of how good this Georgia team can be, former Florida coach Dan Mullen picked the Bulldogs to win the SEC East this season. And during his time at Florida, Mullen wasn’t exactly a fan of Georgia or Kirby Smart.

Despite this being a game between top-12 teams, the gambling experts don’t exactly expect a close game. The Bulldogs are a 17-point favorite against the Ducks, and Oregon is perceived as one of the top teams in the PAC-12.

If Oregon is to spring an upset, ESPN’s Bill Connelly identified one player that has to have a big game for the Ducks: inside linebacker Noah Sewell.

“Sewell might be Oregon’s best blitzer and run defender,” Connelly wrote. “Teams that can’t slow the run and speed up quarterback Stetson Bennett’s brain don’t have a chance against the Dawgs, and Sewell might be the key to both.”

Georgia knows Sewell very well, as the Bulldogs made a strong push for the linebacker in the 2020 recruiting cycle. The Bulldogs ultimately ended up missing out, as he signed with the Ducks.

The Bulldogs have a ton of respect for Sewell as well as Justin Flowe. It will be imperative for Georgia to locate and get a hand on them.

“They have a tremendously talented inside linebacker room,” Smart said. “Both two kids we recruited here and tried to get here, and we had some pretty good inside linebackers when they decided to come. We felt strongly enough they were good enough to come here and play, so they’re talented.”

Related: Georgia football tight ends vs Oregon linebackers won’t decide Week 1 game, but it will still be a lot of fun

Georgia is familiar with the setting, as the Bulldogs have played at least one game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium every season under Smart. The hope is that it is the first of two games in Atlanta this year, as the Bulldogs will also hope to represent the SEC East in the SEC championship game in December.

Before that though, Georgia knows it has to take care of business on Saturday. The game is set for a 3:30 p.m. ET and ABC will broadcast the game.

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