Emptying The Notebook: Thoughts, predictions for Georgia’s 2023 season

Just one more sleep before Georgia begins its 2023 season. The offseason wasn’t easy. It started with tragedy and turmoil ensued. The past couple of months have been much more “normal” but the Bulldogs still begin this season facing some challenges. There isn’t much insider info to share since the last time we emptied the notebook but I’ve got a little and some thoughts and predictions for the 2023 season.

*** I’ll start with predictions where I’m not going to do a game-by-game deal. I predict Georgia goes 12-0 in the regular season and it gets better as the year goes along. I keep thinking that the first half of the season will contain its fair share of victories where the score will, more than a time or two, make the game look a little more lopsided than it actually is.

Georgia is deep and it is going to pull away from some teams late, but with a new quarterback and some new pieces in place, I think teams are going to do a better job of hanging around early. With that said, that might be a good sign because I didn’t think Georgia would be nearly as dominant as it was last year. I predicted a 12-0 regular season then, too, but in my head I thought 11-1 or 10-2 — just ask Palmer Thombs. I just couldn’t find that specific loss on the schedule so I picked 12-0. This year, I genuinely feel like it’ll be 12-0 but I don’t think it’s going to be wire-to-wire dominance with a close call mixed in.

*** When the dust settles on this season I think folks are going to be really fired up about the future of Andrew Paul. Rusty Mansell mentioned earlier this week how Paul had put together some good practices. That has become the norm for the redshirt freshman tailback over the past 2-3 weeks. I told you guys that more than one source who saw the second scrimmage singled him out as the best running back there.

As far as the rest of the running back room goes, I’m not sure who will play on Saturday but I do believe that all four of Georgia’s scholarship players at that position are able to play. The staff might hold Daijun Edwards and/or Kendall Milton out for precautionary reasons, but both, based on what I’ve heard, would be playing if South Carolina were coming to town this weekend.

*** I had a good source tell me recently that this wide receiver group has been the toughest to wrangle of any he has seen at Georgia under Kirby Smart. The Bulldogs have had some really good receivers but so many of them have been go-get-it guys who get what is there after the catch. Well, with guys Dominic Lovett, Ladd McConkey, Dillon Bell and even Mekhi Mews to go with Brock Bowers, there have been more broken tackles and short catches turned into long gains. That’s something to watch this season.

*** On the defensive side, I looked through the our manual scholarship distribution page recently and counted at least 25 guys who I expect to contribute regularly on this defense. That number could climb as high as 30 if you count the DIME package and some inside and outside linebackers that the Georgia staff feels confident can play winning football.

*** There are a number of Georgia players I think can break out on that side of the ball but my official pick there is Warren Brinson. We’ve seen No. 97 do some impressive things over the past two years. He has flashed, but he hasn’t had the consistent snaps to really hang some numbers. I think he’ll do that in 2023 and he’s in the best shape of his career.

*** I know many of you have been asking about the Georgia place-kicker situation and there are two things I’m willing to say at this point. For one, both Jared Zirkel and have been very good this preseason. They’ve shown leg strength, accuracy, and the ability to connect in situations where they’ve been put under pressure. Secondly, it sounds like Woodring came into this week with a slight lead. I’m not sure if that held up over the course of the practices, but he was ahead as of Monday.

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