Bulldogs an underdog for 1st time since ’21

As if Kirby Sensible and the Georgia Bulldogs didn’t have sufficient motivation going into Saturday’s sport in opposition to No. 1 Texas, oddsmakers made certain there was just a little extra materials to placed on the bulletin board this week.

The No. 5 Bulldogs are underdogs in opposition to the Longhorns, snapping a streak of 49-straight video games as favorites. The final time Georgia wasn’t favored to win a sport was Week 1 of the 2021 season in opposition to Clemson — a sport Georgia received 10-3.

However it isn’t merely being an underdog that ought to offend the Bulldogs, it’s that the unfold is 4.5 factors — which is past a typical home-field benefit — and it’s in opposition to Texas.

Georgia has been an ordinary of the SEC for a number of years now, back-to-back nationwide champions in 2021 and 2022 and preseason favorites to win the SEC and nationwide title once more this yr. To be underdogs only a few weeks later of their first assembly in opposition to a league newcomer must be extremely humbling, regardless of how good Texas is.

The final time Georgia was an underdog was the opening sport of the 2021 season 😳

Are you selecting the Bulldogs to beat the Longhorns on Saturday? 👀 pic.twitter.com/YWWwxcP4JU

— ESPN BET (@ESPNBET) October 17, 2024

If this appears like the kind of ignorance spewed from somebody who solely helicopters out and in of the faculty soccer season relatively than trip each ebb and circulate of every play and down, it’s as a result of it’s.

Perhaps Texas is definitely that significantly better than Georgia. I don’t know.

However what I do know is the acute highs and lows of a season often aren’t nice predictors of future efficiency, and if Georgia is just an underdog due to a two-week stretch the place it barely beat Kentucky on the highway and barely misplaced to its greatest SEC rival and No. 4-ranked Alabama, then Texas most likely has a more durable sport coming than the road suggests.

That two-week stretch is precisely when Georgia’s nationwide championship odds started to slide, from +350 earlier than the Alabama loss to +650 after. In that very same interval, undefeated Texas climbed cross the Bulldogs to their present +375 odds, which lead the nation.

However to not reduce how good Texas has been, Georgia should be each bit the group oddsmakers projected getting into the season — which was higher than Texas. And after two straight wins, Georgia’s odds are slowly creeping again up at +450, which is tied with Ohio State for second. One thing tells me they received’t be glad till they’re No. 1 once more.