HOOVER, Ala. — Georgia blanked SEC East winner Missouri on the road last season, but a narrow road loss to South Carolina and an inexplicable 18-point setback to Florida on a neutral field kept the Bulldogs out of the SEC Championship Game.
The voters at SEC football media days, undeterred by Georgia’s inability to close out the division from the driver’s seat last year, picked the Bulldogs to win the East in a landslide last week.
On paper, the parts seem to be in place for Georgia to get back to the title game, where the Bulldogs played and lost in 2011 and 2012.
Sophomore tailback Nick Chubb is the SEC’s top returning rusher with 1,547 yards and 14 touchdowns. Chubb and the deep backfield will be running behind a line with four returning starters, plus tight end Jeb Blazevich and fullback Quayvon Hicks.
The defense is loaded with impact talent, led by outside linebackers Leonard Floyd and Jordan Jenkins, whom ex-Arkansas offensive coordinator Jim Chaney called “cheetahs” last year. Kicker Marshall Morgan led the SEC with 115 points last season.
However, there’s one key piece unaccounted for, and it’s at the most important position on the field.
Quarterback, where holdovers Brice Ramsey and Faton Bauta are battling transfer Greyson Lambert, is not settled, and it might be late next month before Coach Mark Richt and first-year offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer make the call.
“I have no idea who the starter is going to be,” Richt said at SEC media days. “I think it’s going to take a while.
“We have 29 practice opportunities before the first game, and we’re going to get a rotation where we can see the guys that we want to see compete and then make a decision.”
Ramsey, a 6-3 sophomore, passed for 333 yards and three touchdowns in limited duty behind Hutson Mason last year. Bauta, a 6-3 junior, was 4 for 5 for 48 yards.
Georgia linebacker Jordan Jenkins said he’s not concerned about who wins the quarterback job because of what he’s seen from all the competitors and the structure around them.
“I’ve seen the guys play … and watching them play and go through seven-on-seven and watching them compete in the drills we do, I know whichever quarterback we have, they’re going to get the job done,” Jenkins said.
The Georgia quarterback won’t have to be a passing whiz, since the Bulldogs led the SEC with 258 rushing yards per game, 38 touchdowns and 6.0 yards per carry.
Chubb, the SEC freshman of the year and a freshman All-America choice last season, put up his 1,500-yard season in only eight starts after a suspension and eventual injury to Todd Gurley. He’ll have quality assistance at tailback in Keith Marshall, Sony Michel and A.J. Turman, who rushed for 106 yards and two touchdowns in the G-Day game in April. Marshall missed most of the past two seasons with injuries, including knee surgery in 2013, and Michel missed the spring game with a collarbone injury.
Malcolm Mitchell, who has also had multiple injuries in his career, including a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in the first game of 2013, is back for his senior season to lead the receiving corps.
“A lot of times when a guy’s been injured as much as I have, he fades away,” said Mitchell, who was a two-way player earlier in his career. “I’ve been able to stay strong.”
Richt said Schottenheimer, who replaced long-time coordinator Mike Bobo, now the head coach at Colorado State, will help provide the kind of offense style he wants.
“We’ll get into the Spread to some degree, but we still want to have a physical running game to complement a play-action passing game and complement our ability to spread and do those kinds of things,” Richt said.
He said it’s kind of hard to find someone in the college ranks, but Schottenheimer, who spent nine years as a coordinator in the NFL, comes from a similar background.
“Coach Schott has a great mind for football, you can tell,” offensive tackle John Theus said. “When the guy talks football, he loves it. Coming from the league, and with his background, we have the utmost confidence in him.”
The Bulldogs project to be solid in the back seven on defense for second-year coordinator Jeremy Pruitt, with the linebackers Floyd and Jenkins backed by returning starters Quincy Mauger and Dominick Sanders at safety, and Devin Bowman and Aaron Davis at cornerback.
Georgia scored more than 20 percent of its points — 110 of 537 — off turnovers last season while ranking eighth in the country with 41.3 points per game. The Bulldogs led the SEC with a plus 1.23 turnover margin and were third in the league with 29 turnovers gained.
Georgia had big turnover on the defensive front in its 3-4 scheme, and it will need production from a unit that includes seniors Josh Dawson and Chris Mayes and freshmen Trenton Thompson and Chauncey Rivers to complement its veterans on the back end.
The Bulldogs softened up their nonconference schedule outside of Thanksgiving weekend opponent Georgia Tech by setting up games against Louisiana-Monroe, Southern of New Orleans and Georgia Southern. However, the Bulldogs are the only team from the SEC East who will play both Alabama and Auburn this season, adding a degree of difficulty.