Georgia picked to finish second in preseason SEC Poll

The expectations for Georgia aren’t as high in 2025 as they have been in years past.

Georgia was picked to finish second in the preseason SEC poll, which was released Friday. It is the first time since the 2022 season that Georgia has not been the preseason pick to win the league.

The Texas Longhorns were picked to finish first, receiving 96 votes from members of the media. Georgia finished with 44 votes to win the conference.

A year ago, Georgia beat Texas twice, including once in the SEC Championship game. Entering coach Kirby Smart’s 10th season at Georgia, the Bulldogs have won the SEC three times, doing so in 2017, 2022 and 2024.

Georgia and Texas will play once again in 2025, with the Longhorns visiting Athens on Nov. 15. It will be the first time that the two play in Sanford Stadium. The contest should be one of the biggest of the college football season.

“Tremendous respect for him and his program, the job they do,” Smart said of Texas and Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian. “To beat good teams, you’ve got to be a good team. We had a good football team last year. So did they. It’s not about us as coaches. It’s really about the players and what you believe in.

“We got a lot of really good football teams to play next year besides just Texas, so we’re preparing for all of them.”

Georgia went 10-2 during the regular season last year, going 6-2 in SEC play. The losses came on the road against Alabama and Ole Miss.

Those teams were projected to finish No. 3 and No. 7, respectively, in the poll. Both teams will visit Athens this season, as Georgia plays Alabama on Sept. 27 and Ole Miss on Oct. 18.

In speaking at SEC Media Days this week, Smart noted that this would be a different Georgia team. The Bulldogs will have a new starting quarterback, most likely Gunner Stockton.

Smart also made multiple mentions of how this will be a younger Georgia team than in years past.

But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as he believes this may be a hungrier team.

“Fifty-four percent of our players are coming into their first or second year,” Smart said. “What do you get with that? You get youthful exuberance. We’ve had practices that have been spirited. We had a great spring practice that we talked about the words fire, passion and energy.”

Georgia opens the 2025 season at 3:30 p.m. Aug. 30 at home against Marshall. The first SEC game for Georgia comes at Tennessee at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 13.

2025 SEC Predicted order of finish

1. Texas

2. Georgia

3. Alabama

4. LSU

5. South Carolina

6. Florida

7. Ole Miss

8. Texas A&M

9. Tennessee

10. Oklahoma

11. Auburn

12. Missouri