Consecutive national titles. A recruiting machine. Nearly unmatchable player development. And the nation’s longest winning streak going into the 2023 season.
Can anyone beat Kirby Smart’s Georgia juggernaut in its push for a three-peat? How about down the road?
Here are five candidates.
Michigan
After consecutive CFP berths, the loaded Wolverines appear poised to hit their highest gear under coach Jim Harbaugh this season. “Fate is in our hands,” he says of his team’s national championship aspirations. “I firmly believe we have the license and the ability to do it.”
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The question is whether Michigan has closed the still-considerable talent gap between itself and Georgia. The Playoff game between them two seasons ago was a mismatch, and last year the Wolverines lost to a TCU team that the Bulldogs then destroyed by 58 points. Are they strong enough? Explosive enough? And if not yet, can they get there in the years to come?
Ohio State
The single biggest counterpoint to the premise that Georgia is miles ahead of everyone else is this: The Buckeyes came within a missed 50-yard field goal of beating the Bulldogs on the final play of last season’s Playoff, having led by 14 points in the fourth quarter. (The Dawgs needed a long series of plays to go their way to mount a comeback.)
Ohio State recruits well enough to hang with Georgia. And after having their mettle questioned following a blowout loss to Michigan, the Buckeyes showed they have some substance in pushing Georgia to the brink. But this remains a program that has to get better defensively, and fifth-year coach Ryan Day has yet to prove he can beat an SEC power.
LSU
Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for a reason: to win a national championship. LSU, having won three titles this century under three different coaches, offers him the chance. Talent is available, and the school is willing to do whatever it takes to win it all.
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The Tigers were better than expected in their first year under Kelly, but work remains. While Michigan and maybe Ohio State appear better equipped to challenge the Bulldogs this season, LSU could be a bigger threat down the road. “Based upon how we’re recruiting and how we’ll continue to recruit, we’ll have a football roster that can compete against Georgia,” Kelly says. “Then we have to get it done on the field. Is that right now? No, it’s not.”
Texas
They may make you feel like a fool for believing it, but it looks like the Longhorns are really on the verge of being back. After years of false promise, it’s all lined up for 2023: experience, talent, depth, urgency. “This team is different,” says third- year coach Steve Sarkisian, another former Saban assistant. “They have a different look in their eye.”
Recruiting with an eye on SEC membership starting next year, the Horns might finally be tough enough in the trenches to compete with the biggest of big boys. “You win football games up front, and you’ve got to recruit big humans to make that happen,” Sarkisian says. “And that’s something that we’ve committed ourselves to doing.”
The bigger issue might be Sark himself. In nine previous seasons as a head coach, he’s been good, but he’s not yet shown greatness. Does he have it in him?
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Alabama
This may well sound like heresy, but: The bet here is that we have already passed the inevitable beginning of the inevitable end of Saban’s sustained period as the best coach in the game. His championship window is closing, and his 2023 team is not one of his best on paper.
But if the 71-year-old has one title run left in him, it might come a year or two from now. The 2023 Alabama signing class has been heralded as potentially the best in recruiting annals. When armed with superior talent, Saban is tough to bet against. If he ends Smart’s run, after the pupil had followed the master’s blueprint for taking over college football, that would have a certain poetry to it.
