How Georgia's defense holds a major key to making College Football Playoff in 2023

The Georgia Bulldogs will be a hard team to bet against heading into the 2023 season as they come off of back-to-back national championship wins, but what will be the key to them returning to the College Football Playoff?

On3’s JD PicKell believes it will be their defense, a dominant unit the past two seasons that could be more crucial than ever to the team’s success ahead of the upcoming college football season.

“This is sort of two-fold, the Georgia defense, which you could also look at the other side of that coin and say well Carson Beck is also a part of that,” PicKell said. “But I want to focus on the Georgia defense here because I think there’re the most proven with that group. You bring back 70% of the production from a season ago, now you lose some key pieces now, Kelee Ringo gone to the league, Jalen Carter gone to the league even though he was dinged up last year.”

The Bulldogs’ defense has been absolutely dominant during their title run, holding opponents to 12.8 points per game last season and 9.5 points per game the previous season. But with a new quarterback at the helm, there may be even more on their plate in 2023.

“With this Georgia defense and what you have coming back, it could be a situation where you ask them to kind of hold it down while Carson Beck gets his feet underneath him. And I said this before, I think Carson Beck’s gonna be a great quarterback for you at Georgia, like I’m very excited for what he’s going to bring to the table in Athens. I think he’s going to be phenomenal. But the reality is we haven’t seen him yet,” PicKell explained.

Beck could be a slam dunk for the Bulldogs, as he’s spent years in their offense and was a top 20 quarterback in the nation coming out of high school according to On3’s Industry Ranking. But until fans see him in his first-ever career start under center for Georgia, a certain level of uncertainly will loom in Athens.

“And so the reason why I put Georgia and their defense as the key to the College Football Playoff race, can you hold it down while Carson Beck gets acclimated?” PicKell asked. “Because really there’s a couple of games here that you’re looking at, South Carolina early. If South Carolina scores some points and puts some pressure on the Georgia offense is Carson Beck able to step in and answer that call to action? Playing Tennessee the second to last game of the year, that’ll be a high pressure scenario for Carson Beck. Is the defense able to hold it down and sort of make it a game where he doesn’t have to answer scores every single drive?”

Beck and the Bulldogs should be able to get their feet wet early in the season as they open versus Tennessee Martin and Ball State, but as the season prolongs and the SEC schedule begins, it will definitely be interesting to see how the offense and defense balance responsibility in winning football games.

“I think they can do it, I just need to make sure we’re on the same page here. That’s a very big variable for Georgia, I expect them to be up to the level or close to the level they played at a season ago. But they have to do that early to give Carson Beck some time to sort of get his sea legs is my personal opinion,” PicKell concluded.