After a dream season that saw Georgia get all the way to overtime of the National Championship Game, the Bulldogs’ margin for error might be significantly less in 2018.
Georgia weathered a regular-season loss to Auburn, thanks to a revenge win over the Tigers in the SEC title game as well as an elite road nonconference win over Notre Dame.
But in 2018, there’s not a Notre Dame on the schedule. Or any team close to the Fighting Irish, really.
ESPN’s Heather Dinich pointed that out on The Paul Finebaum show Friday afternoon, going as far as to compare the Bulldogs’ schedule to that of Wisconsin’s much-maligned slate in 2017.
Now, that might not be completely fair because the Bulldogs face a Power 5 foe in Georgia Tech on rivalry weekend. But other than that? Not much to brag about.
UGA opens its season with matchups against Austin Peay and Middle Tennessee State in the first month of the season. Then, a week before facing Georgia Tech, the Bulldogs will host Massachusetts.
Georgia’s schedule also is light on tough road games. By far its toughest road test will come at LSU, and UGA has only three other true road games on its schedule: South Carolina, Missouri and Kentucky. The Bulldogs also have the traditional neutral-site game with Florida in Jacksonville.
If Georgia drops a conference game along the way, the road back to the College Football Playoff will be tougher in 2018.
