ESPN Pre-Season Top 25

[TheMoody1]

https://www.espn.com/college-football/s ... emson-no-1

App in at #24.

[NavyApp]

Honestly surprised.

[bigdaddyg]

UGA returns 3 starters on offense, has to replace half of the defense and is rated 4th? Talent disparity in college football gets ridiculous sometimes.

[bigdaddyg]

I should have read them all. LSU loses virtually everyone and still rated 8? Three offensive and five defensive starters return. Lofty rating for a reload.

[booneboy92]

I wonder if being left out of previous versions had anything to do with the coaching staff not being complete at that time? Also, Coach seemed pretty reassuring yesterday with his injury update.

[Yosef84]

UGA returns 3 starters on offense, has to replace half of the defense and is rated 4th? Talent disparity in college football gets ridiculous sometimes.

Georgia is my #2 team since I grew up pulling for the Dawgs (father, uncle, cousin...most of my extended family are alums). They've had unbelievable recruiting under Kirby Smart so the stables are definitely full, but even I think that is optimistic for Georgia. Replacing Fromm is going to be tough. I think he was a bit under rated as a game changer. It will be interesting to see how Jamie Newman does in his transition from WF to Georgia. Georgia hasn't had a "dual threat" mobile QB since Shockley. I just hope they can knock off Bama this time.

[Black Saturday]

Georgia has had years of top of the heap type recruiting classes, they just reload with 5 stars. As we've seen there are only a hand full of schools that are really in the hunt for the playoffs and they are one of them. The rest of us have to know our place in the order of the football world.

[Black Saturday]

UGA returns 3 starters on offense, has to replace half of the defense and is rated 4th? Talent disparity in college football gets ridiculous sometimes.

Georgia is my #2 team since I grew up pulling for the Dawgs (father, uncle, cousin...most of my extended family are alums). They've had unbelievable recruiting under Kirby Smart so the stables are definitely full, but even I think that is optimistic for Georgia. Replacing Fromm is going to be tough. I think he was a bit under rated as a game changer. It will be interesting to see how Jamie Newman does in his transition from WF to Georgia. Georgia hasn't had a "dual threat" mobile QB since Shockley. I just hope they can knock off Bama this time.

I really think Kirby is Georgia's achilles.

[Yosef84]

UGA returns 3 starters on offense, has to replace half of the defense and is rated 4th? Talent disparity in college football gets ridiculous sometimes.

Georgia is my #2 team since I grew up pulling for the Dawgs (father, uncle, cousin...most of my extended family are alums). They've had unbelievable recruiting under Kirby Smart so the stables are definitely full, but even I think that is optimistic for Georgia. Replacing Fromm is going to be tough. I think he was a bit under rated as a game changer. It will be interesting to see how Jamie Newman does in his transition from WF to Georgia. Georgia hasn't had a "dual threat" mobile QB since Shockley. I just hope they can knock off Bama this time.

I really think Kirby is Georgia's achilles.

He cost them the game two years ago against Bama...no doubt about that. That was the dumbest "fake punt" decision EVER which gave Bama a short field on their last possession. The only other loss I think was his fault was LSU (same year)....and BOTH losses were a result from him trying WAY too hard to get a true freshman Fields (now at Ohio State) on the field before he was ready.

Smart got them to the NC game the previous year and that loss was straight directly attributed to horrible officiating at the end of the game. I don't like blaming officials, but there were 3 or 4 HUGE calls (or no calls) that gave Bama the ball for their final possession. Georgia blocked a punt and was called off sides so Bama got to re-punt. The replay clearly showed Georgia wasn't off sides, so they SHOULD have had the ball on the Bama 20 instead of being pinned deep. On the following drive, Bama has a late hit on Fromm that wasn't called and there was a face mask on Swift...also not called. Either of those would have given Georgia a fresh set of downs. I've never seen a game result so obviously dictated by the officials.

Calling Smart their Achilles heel is kind of a stretch for me, but I see what you're saying. He has definitely moved them forward from the Richt years and at least he did win the SEC title. His recruiting is outstanding. I would just like to see him get it done on the field against Bama/LSU.

[mike87]

This is pretty cool.

[AppSt80]

Funny that they think we could "share a conference title".

[Yosef84]

Funny that they think we could "share a conference title".

I thought the same thing! Apparently they haven't figured out that the Belt has a CCG now.

[EastHallApp]

Funny that they think we could "share a conference title".

I thought the same thing! Apparently they haven't figured out that the Belt has a CCG now.

So I tripped over that too at first. I think he was trying to refer to the titles we shared in past years, but he didn't quite get the wording right.

[ah59396]

Is it normal to be attracted to an article???

Asking for a friend...

[spacemonkey]

It would be great to be in the top 25 to start the year. That is a long/lot of conversations about the top 25. Lots of free publicity. This group is getting it done. It's great to be a Mountaineer or a "Happy Appy".

[AppSt80]

Funny that they think we could "share a conference title".

I thought the same thing! Apparently they haven't figured out that the Belt has a CCG now.

So I tripped over that too at first. I think he was trying to refer to the titles we shared in past years, but he didn't quite get the wording right.

Rigggghhhhttttt!

[AppStFan1]

I should have read them all. LSU loses virtually everyone and still rated 8? Three offensive and five defensive starters return. Lofty rating for a reload.

Those teams are getting the benefit of the doubt because the players stepping in for the starters lost were probably top 300 recruits while our replacements were all low 3 star or 2 star players. I don't agree with the ratings and we all know players can develop from a low end recruit to a NFL player but they are going to go with the safer selection of a P5 team who has top 300 recruits stepping in over a G5 with nobody rated high.

I am shocked that we were listed at all. I think we should be in the 30 range but I expected us to be left out and more like 45-60 range from most people. I bet we receive votes from the AP and coaches in preseason but I would be floored if either ranked us higher than 27-30 range to start the year.

[1ASU78]

Glad for the Apps to get the mention. A head scratcher for me is 7-6 Cheat. From nowhere to 22. I don’t know......know it’s based on projections so who knows

[Saint3333]

They had to find someone else in the ACC to rank...

The thoughts behind App are better than most, kudos for the research in that article.

[EastHallApp]

Glad for the Apps to get the mention. A head scratcher for me is 7-6 Cheat. From nowhere to 22. I don’t know......know it’s based on projections so who knows

Didn't lose a game by more than one score (every other P5 to do that finished in the top 10 or so), return a ton of talent including the stud freshman QB, two 1,000 yard receivers, two (almost) 1,000 yard rushers.

The case for UNC next year is actually really easy to understand, which is why they're included in seemingly all these early rankings. App fans just gripe about it because it's UNC. Iowa State, for example, also went 7-6 this year and is 18 here. Oklahoma State goes from 8-5 to #12. But App fans don't care about them.