The Catalog Of 2026 Bulldog Narratives
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We’re less than three weeks from kickoff, and thoughts are turning to football more and more frequently. Last year, I tried to get ahead of some of the narratives we could expect to follow the team throughout the season. Here now is another batch of stories that we’re likely to hear a lot of this fall.
Offense Intended?
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It’s nice to get a half week off in what would otherwise be a dreary time of year, football is reaching its peak, and you get to eat a 4,000 calorie meal in the middle of the day and nobody even politely clears their throat to suggest you shouldn’t be going back for seconds.
The highlight of the holiday for me is cooking the turkey. A few years ago, I was gifted a Thanksgiving cooking class, at which I learned about spatchcocking. If you’ve never done this before, I can’t recommend it enough; you get a bird with perfectly crispy skin without drying out the meat. After I spatchcock the bird, I cover it in a mayo and spice rub to crisp up the outside and flavor it. Each year, I tinker with the spices a bit.
The point here, other than I wanted to say spatchcock, is that this is remarkably similar to another fall tradition: complaining about the Georgia offense. The specific flavor is different, but the overall idea is the same. Perhaps the issue will be Mike Bobo or Carson Beck, but the thrust is that Georgia’s offense isn’t working properly.
The 2024 team felt extremely inert on offense. That’s likely because the team had regressed more than a full touchdown from the previous year, dropping from 40.1 points per game to 32.6. I felt like last year’s offense was much better, so imagine my surprise when I was investigating the stats for this article. The 2025 team was a little worse in points per game (32.1) and passing yardage (Gunner Stockton had 2,894 to Beck’s 3,485). Perhaps I’m alone in feeling this way, but I thought last year’s offense was much more dynamic. I was even shocked to see Zachariah Branch ended the year with fewer yards than Arian Smith the year before.
So the good news is there’s definite room for improvement on what already feels like a solid base. The Dawgs have continuity at both quarterback and OC, and I will not worry about the run game until there’s a reason I have to. But it’s time once again to wonder who’s going to be catching the passes. I don’t think a Smart-led Georgia is ever going to employ a heavy vertical passing attack, but you do need that club in your bag, especially if you plan to win anything of note. Sometimes you have to stretch the field (see the 2023 Peach Bowl for evidence).
Last year, Branch was Stockton’s favorite target, but he’s in Atlanta now. Who’s going to replace him? London Humphreys is the leading returning receiver. Talyn Taylor was a four-star and has a year of experience under his belt now. Transfer Isiah Canion has a ton of potential as well. But I’m most excited to see Elyiss Williams and Kaiden Prothro at tight end. If ever there were a tight-end pairing to rival Darnell Washington and Brock Bowers, this is it. With Stockton’s mobility, I expect to see a fair amount of 12 personnel. Throw Lawson Luckie in there for 13, and the red zone offense looks awfully hard to stop.
Beyond the receivers, the other big question mark is the offensive line. Phil Rauscher is taking over for Stacey Searels. Rauscher brings experience coaching o-line in the NFL (assuming you count Minnesota and Jacksonville), so he shouldn’t have to get up to speed. But between the new coach and new personnel, there’s bound to be an adjustment period. The schedule is favorable here, with two warmup games before a weaker SEC opponent to ease into things, but you’d hope to see the line gelling early.
All that is to say, I am not that worried about the offense. And I plan to use blackening spices this year.
Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dawgs of War
It would be unfair to say the defense was bad last year. The 2025 edition of the Georgia Bulldogs gave up just a shade over 17.5 points per game. Only three teams managed to score three or more touchdowns against the Dawgs, and one of those (Mississippi State) did so in garbage time. The others were Tennessee and both Ole Miss games.
Despite the overall successes on defense, there was one notable weak point on that side of the ball: the pass rush. Last year’s defense ended the season with just 20 sacks for the year, the lowest total ever for a Kirby Smart-led Georgia team. (The next lowest was 2018 with 24.) It was one of just three times (along with ’18 and 2016) in which the defense failed to tally at least 30 sacks.
Nowhere was this deficiency more pronounced than in the Sugar Bowl. No matter how many guys got into the backfield, they couldn’t get Trinidad Chambliss on the ground. Georgia didn’t sack him once that night and only ended the game with three tackles for loss overall. Against an explosive offense, you absolutely have to generate negative plays to disrupt their momentum.
There aren’t that many quarterbacks at Chambliss’s level. But beating playoff-caliber teams is going to require a much more aggressive pass rush than we saw last year. The upside here is that I absolutely trust Smart to solve this problem, and I’m willing to bet the down year was a statistical aberration. But I’d love to see evidence of that early this season, even if it’s against lesser competition.
Postseason Homesick Blues
Speaking of the playoffs, are you aware that Georgia has won the SEC two years in a row, only to get bounced in its first playoff game? If you somehow aren’t, you’re about to be because that’s going to come up with blood-boiling frequency this year. The implication is that the Georgia dynasty is over, and the aura of invincibility has faded.
The back half of Mark Richt’s tenure — a run of success that most teams would love to have — was overshadowed by accusations of his inability to “win the big one.” Only the most deranged anti-Georgia partisan could possibly argue that Kirby Smart has a similar problem. Speaking personally, the worst of my football-induced agita permanently fled when Kelee Ringo broke the plane in Lucas Oil. But there is an easy narrative to reach for here, and sports shouters have a lot of hours to fill.
Under Kirby Smart, Georgia is experiencing the best run of football in the school’s history. Imagine telling yourself in 2006 about this period. But that success is a double-edged sword. Especially in the big playoff era, just making the field isn’t going to be enough. And while I’m old enough to still care about the SEC Championship, even that doesn’t hold the luster it once did.
For the record, I believe Smart has at least one more championship season in him. And I hope it’s this one.
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