Georgia football is coming off one of it's most historical seasons of all-time. Wins in the SEC Championship and Rose Bowl, an appearance in the College Football Playoff National Championship and a nationally ranked defensive performance for most of the 2017 season had Georgia experiencing the peak of college football's mountain. Coming into the 2018 season, however, Georgia has barely been talked about in the national sports media, taking a back seat to a quarterback-duel in Tuscaloosa and overlooked by other talented teams.
The sports media giants, such as ESPN and Fox Sports, understand that college football is a money maker in America. They spend countless hours talking about college football's best teams, players, storylines, and predictions on a week-to-week basis to please their audiences. While teams like Alabama and Ohio State have earned the right to be talked about by college football experts, why is Georgia football being overlooked coming off a historical season? Is it because we share a conference with the reigning dynasty in Alabama? Is it because we lost some historically great players in Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, and Roquan Smith?
The number one thing most experts say when discussing Georgia is the loss of those previously mentioned players who left for the NFL this past season. While this is a big loss for the Dawgs and those players will be missed, the team recently pulled in the number 1 recruiting class in the country this past spring which included seven 5-star players, and in two games played have shown that those positions have been filled and the team is still strong. Even after a strong performance against South Carolina on the road, Georgia still seems to be left out of ESPN shows such as First Take, who talk strongly about Alabama and Clemson.
Georgia hasn't gone totally broke with some college football experts. Three ESPN experts predicted the Dawgs to win the National Championship in a preseason poll, and 10 other experts of the 43 polled put them in the College Football Playoff. It's great to see some experts see the potential this Georgia team holds, but it's still upsetting not to see more coverage on a team that seems well on it's way to another great season. Even following the teams historic Rose Bowl win last January, the talk on ESPN wasn't about a dominating second half or the blocked field goal by Lorenzo Carter in overtime, ESPN felt like Oklahoma lost the game more than Georgia won the game.
Especially following last years College Football Playoff, many experts have written off Georgia as national championship contenders, calling 2017 a "one-and-done" for the Dawgs. This should not be the case. Georgia has some of the best young talents in the country with players like Jake Fromm at quarterback and De'Andre Swift in the backfield. This is the one bright side to Georgia's non-existence in the big sports media shows. With Georgia under-the-radar, the team seems more focused than ever with little distractions from the media that Alabama can't seem to dodge.
The biggest storyline throughout the offseason in all college football was the quarterback duel between Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa. Tagovailoa took over for Hurts, a two-year starter, in the second half against Georgia in the National Championship Game. He ended up leading a 13 point comeback to win the Tide's fifth title in nine years. All offseason, the talk around the country was who would end up starting at quarterback for the Crimson Tide. The question is why is this such a big deal? Why is this such a newsworthy event that it needed to be discussed on a weekly basis as the season grew closer? The reason has to be simple, Alabama wins.
Teams like Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State have won national championships since the College Football Playoff began in 2014 and seemed to hog the spotlight of college football ever since. This has to be the reason for Georgia's disappearing act in major sports media and constant disrespect that the team does not fully deserve. Georgia is one of the most talented and growing football programs in the entire country, but until the Dawgs can win the big game that has eluded the program throughout the 21st century, the national media simply doesn't care what Georgia does. This bodes well for the Dawgs, as head coach Kirby Smart continues to ready his players and future players for multiple runs in the College Football Playoff over the next several years. Will Georgia become the next powerhouse of college football, maybe even eclipsing Alabama's national championship dominance? Time will only tell if this is an accurate claim, and hopefully can lead to the Dawgs becoming a hot topic in college football's landscape.
