UGA football 2024 schedule: Why Georgia Bulldogs are equipped for monster matchups
Georgia football has taken some shots for a 2023 schedule that appears super soft on paper.
The 2024 schedule is a stark contrast, looking rugged with some possibly dicey road games.
The opponents and sites for the Bulldogs SEC slate were revealed Wednesday night on the conference’s SEC Network show. Dates will be announced later this year.
It came two weeks after the league settled on an eight-game conference schedule for the first season of Texas and Oklahoma playing in the expanded 16-team league.
Kirby Smart goes deep: UGA's pivot from 'stagnant years' to back-to-back champions
'I'd go to war with that guy:' Wes Johnson left lasting impression on path to UGA baseball
Georgia’s loaded schedule includes not only season opener Clemson in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta but road games at Texas and Alabama and home games against Tennessee and Auburn.
Let’s remember Georgia is recruiting at an elite level, has won two straight national titles and is 29-1 the past two seasons.
Here are some takeaways
UGA football to play the Texas Longhorns
Alright. Alright. Alright.
Georgia and Texas are two of the biggest brand names in college football.
So the SEC must be salivating in the programs going head-to-head in the Longhorns debut season.
The storylines could go deep. A possible QB matchup of Arch Manning vs. Dylan Raiola.
Uga’s revenge with Bevo after their dustup at the Sugar Bowl.
This is matchup scheduled back in 2018 that was supposed to happen as a nonconference series in 2028 in Austin and 2029 in Athens.
Georgia’s one game at Texas came in 1958, a 13-8 Longhorns win.
This will be the sixth meeting.
Texas has won five including the Sugar Bowl at the end of the 2018 season.
That’s the last Georgia nonconference defeat.
Georgia Bulldogs-Alabama Crimson Tide first regular season meeting in four years
Kirby Smart’s gone up against the program where he made a name for himself as defensive coordinator just once in the regular season so far in 2020.
Georgia-Alabama has made for compelling postseason matchups in the 2017 national championship game, the 2018 and 2021 SEC championship game and the 2021 national title tilt.
Since Smart left Alabama after the 2015 season, the Crimson Tide won the national title in 2017 and '20. The Bulldogs won it all in 2021 and '22.
This will be the first Georgia game in Tuscaloosa played in a full stadium since 2007 when Mikey Henderson caught the game-winning touchdown pass in overtime from Matthew Stafford.
The Crimson Tide won the last game before a COVID-limited crowd, 41-24
Georgia football can handle beefed-up schedule
When Smart is asked for the first time about the 2024 schedule, chances are he’ll say bring it on.
In March, he said he welcomes tougher opponents when talking about nonconference scheduling.
“I like to schedule bigger games,” Smart said on SiriusXM Radio. “Our kids get more excited to play the teams. I think the expanded playoff is going to help with that because as a schedule guy you’re not scared of one loss. It’s like basketball, you can go schedule all you want. You need to peak at the end. It doesn’t matter how many tough teams you play, you’ve got to peak at the end to get in the tournament.”
A reminder of the teams Georgia has beaten the past three seasons: Ohio State, TCU, LSU, Tennessee, Oregon, Alabama, Michigan, Clemson and Cincinnati.
And there’s not much sign of Georgia letting up.
Georgia brought in the No. 2 recruiting class this year by the 247Sports Composite where its 2024 class currently sits No. 1 with three 5-star commitments. The 2022 class was No. 3 , the 2021 class No. 4 and the 2020 class No. 1.
Texas A&M will have to wait
Hard to believe that Georgia fans will go to Austin in year one of the Longhorns in the SEC, but it will be at least 2025 — year 14 of Texas A&M in the SEC — before the Bulldogs play in College Station.
Georgia was finally going to play at Texas A&M in 2014 under the previous eight-game schedule in a 14-team league.
Since every SEC team will play every other conference team once every two years, Georgia and Texas A&M will play in 2025.
It has to be in College Station, right?
The Georgia football home schedule and who isn’t on the schedule
As expected, the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry rolls on with Auburn coming to Athens in 2024.
The other SEC home games are Mississippi State and current SEC East foe Tennessee. Georgia loses a home game because of the Florida neutral site game in Jacksonville. Georgia and Mississippi State played in 2020 in Athens and 2022 in Starkville.
Divisions are gone in the SEC and Georgia won’t face three teams that annually have been on the schedule from the SEC East: Missouri, Vanderbilt and South Carolina. Kentucky remains on the schedule as a road game.
2024 will end 12 straight years playing Missouri. South Carolina has played Georgia every year since joining the league in 1992. Vanderbilt cancelled its game with Georgia in 2020. Georgia is traveling to Ole Miss for the first time since 2016, Smart's first season.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia football 2024 schedule: UGA Bulldogs face tough slate
