Georgia Football 2024 Preview: Off-Field Problems, Roster & Clemson Matchup

[Music] welcome back to another Sports not interview college football week one kicks off this weekend highlighted by number one Georgia taking on number 14 Clemson and joining us is a man who knows Georgia football very well Mark wiser is our guest and Mark covers Georgia football for the banner excuse me the Athens banner heral and Mark I know this is a big week for you and Georgia football we appreciate you make some time for us today yeah no problem good to be with you now before we get into the matchup with Clemson I do want to get into some big picture topics with you surrounding the the program of Georgia I know it was a tough off season for the football team uh as well as Kirby Smart there was a number of off- the- field incidents involving uh traffic incidents speeding I believe there was a DUI in there all all kinds of things a plethora of issues so I'm going to cut right to the chase here with this one do you feel that Kirby Smart has failed to get a a handle on his players and their their off the field behaviors and and what are supporters of the program saying in and around Athens Georgia I don't know if I want to say that that he's failed I mean um you know he he's the head football coach for Georgia there's 120 guys on the roster um you know I don't want to put it all on him obviously he's the leader of the program um you know can Georgia do a better job of keeping their guys from uh you know having these kind of speeding incidents certainly they can and I think that's a team effort for the support staff the administration uh to get the message through to um you know to the program I mean Kirby's making 13 million so I guess the buck stops with him um but you know this seems like a you know it's an off season issue now we're really kind of into the season Kirby and his coaching staff have more control over their players um you know since preseason came began but certainly uh you know since the uh the tragic death of uh you know offensive lineman Deon willick and recruiting Stafford Chandler lroy uh back in January of 2023 uh you know Georgia's uh still had a lot of issues with players you know being charged with reckless driving with speeding with racing and um you know some of that will bleed into the season you know we'll find out whether there's a couple players suspended Kirby's not one to go ahead and and announce that stuff ahead of time okay all right fair enough we'll uh we'll move to the more on the- field topics now you know they won the back-to-back championships uh a couple years ago and they were well on their way last year until they came up short in the SEC Championship game versus Alabama um which you know eventually derailed their their hopes of a a third consecutive title did not make the college football playoff what has been the message throughout the offseason what is what is what is Kirby smart preaching the mindset to be following what ultimately is a is a disappointing season for Geor football as they move in towards you know this this coming season yeah I mean I don't really sense that it's you know the driving motivation I me it is for certain players I think Carson Beck in particular because he wants to win a National Championship uh being the guy at quarterback you know obviously it was Stetson Bennett that did it in back-to-back years but Georgia does a good job of kind of you know resetting rebooting um you know I don't think anyone thought that Georgia was going to go you know undefeated necessarily um you know once again I mean in many years this would have been a playoff team last year but you had Georgia you had Florida State left out you know probably uh worthy of being in the playoff you know at least publicly Kirby's kind of framed it that way um you know that that that's not a huge motivation now behind closed doors you know he does anything he can to to kind of light a fire so maybe that that is something that he'll be talking about the fact that you weren't one of the best teams last year uh and now you have a chance again you know during those Championship runs that we saw Georgia have recently the identity of the football team was their defense but this year's team is headlined by Carson Beck the quarterback and who is a Heisman hopeful I might add but he's gonna have to do it this year without four of his top five uh receiving options from last year so give us the names of some of these players we're going to have to step up and try to fill the void with some of that production that was left yeah I mean let's start at tight end when you lose uh Brock Bowers uh you know who who was kind of a once- in a generation type tight end who you know they line him up at running back on occasion uh obviously uh you know wide and and could make great plays in the open field Oscar Delp is is kind of the next guy at that position but they they brought in Ben URC as well from Stanford a veteran uh who's been around for for several years productive college player that dealt with some injuries you know so so he has a chance to kind of you know maybe be the onew punch there um Dylan Bell is the guy that's kind of been uh you know they they've used him at obviously a wide receiver where where he kind of has done his thing but they also were short-handed at running back to start last season and he's a guy that they got the ball in his hands uh he can make plays for them um you know you're going to see you know Trevor ATM the transfer from Florida is going to you know come in and be the kind of the Workhorse back I would expect but but there's other behind him but Branson Robinson comes back from an achillas injury um that that kept him out all last season um that there's a freshman that came in from California that I would expect also a you know four or five star guy uh so you know they have uh talent that you know Aran Smith is a guy that's going to be interesting track guy um you know made a lot of big plays at Georgia but hasn't made him uh as often as they would like has had some problems with drops had a bunch of injuries so um you it be interesting to see the characters uh that that emerge uh the big Playmakers D love it um you know was kind of uh a big play guy last year or at least a racked up 50 plus catches um you know can he kind of emerge as the next guy um to be a go-to guy like lad makoni was yeah so although they've lost some pretty talented players from last year's team this is Georgia football we're talking about and and Georgia doesn't you know they just retool they reload and it doesn't sound like the cupboards are very bare right now for Georgia football still plenty of weapons there for Carson Beck now we've seen a number of players from the Georgia defense in recent years get drafted um and I know that this year they have a safety Miki Starks I believe his name is who could be one of the top safeties to hear his name called in in the 2025 draft um but based on how this year's team is built wh where where is the strength in this team I think it's you know you mentioned Starks I think it's some some individual Playmakers um you know I mean linebacker they bring back smile mundon who who's one of those guys that had an all field incident um a reckless driving a racing incident that that Got U kind of pled out in the court and and you know the case was resolved but he he could be suspended for the Clemson game Kirby Smart hasn't said that but but he's a guy that's uh you know been kind of an important piece at inside linebacker CJ Allen another guy at linebacker that really emerged last year they had some injuries there Jam Dumis Johnson who since transferred to Kentucky um you know his injury kind of forced CJ Allen to to play um you know early last year and then a guy like Mikel Williams you know one of the NFL Mock Draft guys from the ESPN had him as a projected number one overall pick um you know maybe like Trayvon Walker a guy that can come off the edge can line up at defensive end or outside linebacker and really is kind of scratching the surface I think this could be the year that he will be Unleashed and and really uh you know be the next guy of Georgia's front seven uh guys that that look like big things for the NFL so plenty of Playmakers uh okay uh noted now let's move into the matchup with with Clemson now you look at this matchup on paper you see the rankings you see number one Georgia 14 Clemson you're thinking this is going to be a really really good game here but Vegas oddsmakers they see it a little different they they have Georgia as the 14o favorites right now um you know one of the storylines that I've been reading about going into this game for Georgia is the situation at running back so what is the latest that you can tell us on who's going to be out there who's going to be available and and who we can expect to see you know Trevor etn is probably going to be suspended if I had to guess uh he had a DUI um that ended up being dismissed that charge but he had several other Mis misdemeanor charges um you know so uh driving violations that um you know I think he was going 30ish miles over the speed limit um and told police that he had uh a few beers earlier in the evening um you know but so I think Kirby's probably going to suspend him but but he's not saying that yet as I mentioned earlier I think you're gonna see Branson Robinson as kind of the main guy um at running back and you know they might have to rely on a walk- on even Cass Jones uh because rodri Robinson another experienced back that they have has a toe injury underwent surgery um you know so this is a Georgia team last year that was more reliant on on Beck's arm and and the weapons on the outside and those tight ends so I think they will be able to run the ball still they have one of the best offensive lines in in college football but it might be a game where you you know you do the quick swing passes get the ball into the playmaker's hands um you know or or they can even put Dylan Bell again um at running back on on a couple of occasions do uh you know some end rounds for Arion Smith get the ball in his hand a wide receiver so um you know I think uh at running back in particular that's the one area that that Georgia could be very for this game what what has to go right for Clemson in order to to pull the upset here and and beat this Georgia team what what's the weakness that Dabo Sweeney should look to attack on this Georgia football team I mean if they can get the running game going Georgia's defensive line uh you know was uh kind of the weak point against Alabama um you know so if uh if Clemson can do that if Kade kumnick um you know can make some more explosive plays with these wide receivers you know they don't have the type of wide receivers of Clemson that they had uh you know back in their Heyday their playoff run um you know and and if they can avoid uh you know the miscues um you know the tackles for losses the fumbles in the Red Zone I think that's what Clemson needs to do to be able to stay with Georgia um but that defensive line in particular the secondary we're not sure about I mean they do have Starks as we mentioned earlier but but uh they lost three NFL draft picks from their secondary so you know can Clemson exploit in experience there um guys that haven't you know gotten uh you know the full compliment of snaps uh on the back end we'll see I'm not sure if you've had a chance to do it yet but uh I'm G to ask you anyhow do you have a a game prediction uh for for this weekend for us I think I had it uh Georgia 31 Clemson 14 I mean Georgia hasn't lost a regular season game since 2020 um you know Clemson obviously is coming off a year where they went four and four in the ACC and you know I need to see it from Clemson that they're you know have taken a step up that um you know that this offense can be as we mentioned earlier a little bit more explosive and um you know this offensive coordinator for Clemson was a TCU offensive coordinator for the national championship game a couple years ago and and Georgia snuffed them out so um I think Clemson's more talented on offense uh we'll see you know what that looks like this time around but but it's hard to pick uh you know Georgia to win this one close I think they they get a pretty comfortable win big season ahead for Georgia football it all gets started here this weekend on Saturday verse number 14 Clemson at noon from Atlanta should feel like a home game for the Bulldogs Mark Weiser we appreciate you for joining us and we appreciate all your Insight thanks for your time today yeah good to be with you [Music]

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