In non playoff bowls, a lot of the SEC teams did not want to be there, for example, Bama-So Carolina-A&M were favorites but did not want to be there, they could not get jacked up for their opponents after facing Georgia, Texas, Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, and other giants during their conference seasons. Some felt slighted when slugs like SMU, Clemson, Indiana, and Boise got in the playoffs. SO they have not shown that well in these contests.
To boot, when these middle sized bowls each have 15-20 or more opt outs, it is difficult to judge.
Today, we will see a motivated conference champ:
- Georgia played a superior schedule, now #3 to ND's 59, ask yourself how many games would ND lose if it played Georgia's schedule, in the SEC there are no weekends off, and almost every team can knock you off
- Today they have both top RBs playing, healthy for the first time in a long time.
- Georgia has a much better coach than ND.
- Georgia has three elite impact players on D that are going early in the first round and will not hold back today, sacks, fumbles, and INTs are more than likely
- Gunner is a 5 star who has been with the program for several yrs, many think he should have been starting all along, he is a good passer and runner, much less likely to throw an INT than Beck, though Beck is a better mid and deep passer
- Georgia, for some reason, has started slowly all year, perhaps Beck throwing too many incompletions hurt them, and the trend that the bye teams (Boise, Az St, and Oregon) all started terribly slow against teams that played 10 days ago, is of concern
STILL like GA, +1, BIG
Much more talented, played much tougher schedule--beat 6 bowl teams if you include Texas twice, better coach, healthier than they have been, despite the QB injury