The college football playoff rankings as of week 11 are as follows:
- Alabama
- Clemson
- Notre Dame
- Michigan
- Georgia
- Oklahoma
- LSU
- Washington State
- West Virginia
- Ohio State
Georgia's remaining schedule:
Nov. 10- Auburn
Nov. 17- Massachusetts
Nov. 24- Georgia Tech
* All home games
The Georgia Bulldogs are 8-1 on the season with the only loss being to the current number 7 overall team LSU. The final three games on the schedule are entirely winnable games with Auburn being the toughest. Georgia will definitely benefit from being in Athens for all of their remaining regular season games.
The biggest challenge for UGA the rest of the way is not just playing well but having one of the four teams above them in the rankings falter. Alabama looks like the clear favorite to stay at number 1 along with Clemson looking to stay at number 2. The two most likely scenarios would be either Notre Dame or Michigan falling out of the top spots.
The real test coming later on though will be the SEC Championship game where the winner will certainly be in the playoff and the loser will likely be on the outside looking in barring something unexpected happens.
Photo by Griffin Callaghan
The biggest game of the year will feature UGA and Alabama for the SEC title in Atlanta. This will be Georgia's toughest test in recent memory. Alabama is absolutely steamrolling their competition and they demolished LSU which is the team that handed Georgia its only loss on the year. The even more intimidating stat though is that Alabama held LSU off the scoreboard for the entire game. Not even a single point. That is the same LSU team that beat UGA by 20.
Despite all of the odds, UGA fans should have hope. When Georgia went to Baton Rouge, the team fell apart on offense, but the team has bounced back in a significant way by beating both Florida and Kentucky (both of whom were ranked opponents). The defense was not the problem for much of the game as they played rather well for the most part.
UGA will have a much better shot at Alabama that LSU could have even dreamed of. Georgia has one of the best and the biggest offensive lines in the country and they have the ability to control the line of scrimmage. This gives the UGA run game an excellent shot to create separation and gain yards in chunks. The key will be to effectively run the ball but still be efficient in the passing game. LSU quarterback Joe Burrow completed just over 50 percent of his passes in the contest which was just never going to get it done.
Jake Fromm is currently completing 67.7 percent of his throws with a 9.2 yards per attempt average. The offense is averaging 233.8 rushing yards per game and 456.2 total yards of offense per game on the year. If they can come anywhere close to those offensive numbers, then Alabama will have a tough challenge ahead.
If Georgia can play at its best against Alabama and finish the season out with commanding victories, then they will almost certainly be back in the college football playoffs for the second consecutive year.
