ATHENS – Fans of Georgia football may finally get a red card over the season with the SEC’s release of the 2020 schedule.
Again, it does not appear that the league office has any advantages over the Bulldogs, this time out a top-heavy schedule that includes probably the most physical stretch of four games in the league.
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Opening against SEC West Arkansas’ bottom line is almost the only positive to have, as it gives Kirby Smart and Todd Monken a chance to sort out the freshman offense.
However, the Bulldogs make the most of their trip to Fayetteville, as things get rough afterwards.
Here are four things that stand out:
Load in front
Georgia’s great depth is important, but it will not be as much of a factor in November as it has been with the moving frontal loading schedule that came out of the SEC office.
The Bulldogs will be challenged to get their offense in sync soon, as their hopes of a fourth-straight SEC East title will be decided by the second week of November.
Georgia plays Auburn (October 3), Tennessee (October 10), Alabama (October 17) and Kentucky (October 24) in consecutive weeks for a weekend, and then the Bulldogs play in Florida.
Physical toll
The Bulldogs’ annual rivalry with Auburn has always been a physical battle, regardless of score or margin.
But when playing Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky in Weeks 3, 4 and 5, Georgia will match the top three-ranked offensive lines in the SEC, according to ESPN analyst and Joe Moore Award (best team offensive line) chairman Cole Cubelic.
Georgia will have a chance this season to prove it has the best defensive line in the nation, and having a deep rotation under the first seven will be more important than ever during that brutal stretch.
Road striders
The Bulldogs will go six weeks between home games this season, in part because of the UGA administration’s desire to continue with a designated home game 340 miles away in Jacksonville.
The contract runs through 2023, but this would have been a season to seek an exemption in the interest of player safety with studies suggesting that travel increases the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
Georgia plays Tennessee at home on Oct. 10 and will not return to Sanford Stadium for a home game until Nov. 21. Against Mississippi State.
Georgia will need to be road warriors in the middle of the season and avoid the COVID-19 bug on subsequent trips from the city to hotels in Tuscaloosa, Lexington, Jacksonville and Columbia, Mo., to have a healthy close to the season.
Out of sight
A closing region of Missouri, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Vanderbilt may seem appealing, but only if Georgia is in control of the SEC East Division at that time.
The league’s schedule pits Florida and Tennessee in the final regular season of the game, one of the more popular rivalries in the league historically because of its implications of the Eastern Division.
The last time Tennessee and Florida played at the end of the regular season was in 2001, on a 9-11 record, with the Vols hoping for the Gators’ national championship in Steve Spurrier’s last home game on The Swamp .
Georgia, meanwhile, is closing in on the shadows against an empty Vanderbilt program that figures have been completely lost by that node. The Commodores have already selected top players, and the season has not even started yet.
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Our 2020 schedule‼ ️🏈#ATD #GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/XIGYO8tBGT
Georgia Football (@GeorgiaFootball) August 18, 2020
