Georgia wasn’t going to enjoy the benefit of cupcake week this coming season.

Instead of playing a group of six teams like the Bulldogs had the last two seasons against UMass and Charlotte, Georgia’s penultimate game of the regular season comes against SEC foe South Carolina.

That will continue in the future, as the SEC announced last week that schools will no longer be able to schedule nonconference foes in that mid-November window. We’ll see more conference games later in the season, which should lead to a more entertaining product for fans.

Georgia hasn’t exclusively played cupcakes late in the season, as the Bulldogs had road trips to Kentucky and Tennessee in that same slot in 2022 and 2023. Georgia won each those games on its way to playing in the SEC championship game in both seasons.

Most celebrated the schedule change, especially those outside the SEC. Some saw it as an unfair advantage to give SEC teams a break late in the season.

There is one drawback for the Bulldogs with this decision and it will largely impact the younger players on their roster. The biggest positive for Georgia is that those late-season blowouts would give the Bulldogs a chance to show what some of the younger players on the roster can do.

Freshman running back Bo Walker had three rushing touchdowns in last season’s win over Charlotte. Ryan Puglisi and Ryan Montgomery both completed passes in the win, while defensive back Rasean Dinkins had 3 tackles in the win and center Malachi Tolliver made his first career start

Dinkins and Tolliver would end up making their first career starts two weeks later in Georgia’s 28-7 win over Alabama. Those reps against Charlotte paid huge dividends for both players.

“They’ve got good intangibles. They work hard. They’ll get tested this week in terms of their focus and how well they can continue to elevate as opposed to sit there and idle by,” Smart said prior to facing Charlotte. “They’ve gotta make a choice if they want to continue to get better.”

Georgia still has games against non-Power 4 teams on the schedule; they’ll just exclusively be on the front end. The Bulldogs open the season against Tennessee State and then host Western Kentucky the following week.

Those games are now the best chance for players at the bottom of the roster to get meaningful snaps that could help accelerate their development.

In an age where Georgia is always going to skew young, these games and opportunities become all the more critical for Smart and his team.

The Bulldogs are a bit older this season, as they have 34 players who will be in at least their third year in the program. Last season, that number was just 25.

But Georgia is still counting on its younger players to help the roster. While some like Tyriq Green and Kaiden Prothro may be good enough to help immediately, others will take a bit longer like Dinkins did last season.

Of course, all of this is for naught if Georgia doesn’t take care of business against these overmatched foes. Georgia led just 14-3 at halftime of last year’s game against Austin Peay. Western Kentucky played LSU to a 13-10 game last fall.

Georgia’s top players have to clear the way so players such as Isaiah Gibson, Valdin Sone and Craig Dandridge get some much-needed playing time.

With the SEC going to nine-conference games, it’s going to be more imperative than ever to have a deeper roster. With the removal of cupcakes, it’s going to be more imperative to have young players ready to go even sooner.

“I think they’re going to be youth across the board, and I’m going to have to get used to being patient,” Smart said. “It’s what it is, how fast you can grow your youth compared to others.”

That challenge isn’t new for Georgia, which routinely leads the country in snaps played by freshmen. But whereas players like Zayden Walker and Landon Roldan made strides in the late part of the season, Georgia will need its next wave to be ready to go even earlier in the year.

Dessert will have to come first for the Bulldogs, as future schedules will have more helpings of meat and potatoes on the backend.