Georgia may not be great in 2025, but who in college football will be?

ATHENS, Ga. Three years ago, Georgia won a national championship and then set a modern NFL Draft record when 15 players from that team were selected. Five Georgia players went in the first round, all from a defense that was then considered and still could be as good as any generation. All in all, it was a huge, irreplaceable loss of talent.

And yet they were replaced. The next Georgia team was even better, as it finished 15-0, largely behind an offense full of veterans, but supported by a young but strong defense.

But a new era was dawning in college football. Georgia has hardly fallen off the map; the next team went 13-1 and the team after that won the SEC championship, but it was not among the final four in the College Football Playoff the past two years. And as Georgia gears up for 2025, a look at the projected roster offers a twofold conclusion:

1. The Bulldogs appear far removed from their stacked 2021-2022 teams.

2. Then again, no one else looks this great.

You may have heard that the SEC has been shut out of the national championship game for the second straight season. You may also have heard the prevailing theory: the transfer portal and anyone who can afford players has leveled the field. As a test case, Georgia shows this to be true, although only halfway.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart's Bulldogs have reached the College Football Playoff three times in the last four years. (Joshua L. Jones/USA Today Network via Imagn images)

The Bulldogs have continued to assemble stellar recruiting classes, with the class of 2025 ranked No. 2 in the 247Sports Composite. It has become more difficult to retain those players. Georgia found that out again this month when Damon Wilson, a rising junior and five-star recruit, fled to the portal rather than compete to become Georgia's starting linebacker. (He landed in Missouri, underscoring that SEC-on-SEC crime is as much to blame as poaching by outsiders.)

But if it was pure talent, Georgia would be just fine. Last year it had the second-most talented team in the country, according to the 247Sports Talent Composite, behind only Alabama. But it didn't do enough good for either team, because experience is also important. The Ohio States collective spent about $20 million last season, mostly on retaining players. Notre Dame was revamped primarily on offense, importing quarterback Riley Leonard, but returning most of its defensive starters, including stars like safety Xavier Watts, the reigning Nagurski Award winner. And last year, Michigan won the championship with a veteran team of 13 players.

These examples don't seem to bode well for Georgia in 2025, which will still be awash with talent, but much younger.

Georgia's current roster consists of 16 players who were rated as five-star recruits coming out of high school by On3 or 247Sports. Forty-nine players were rated as four-star recruits. That's right on par with Georgia's national championship teams. The 2021 team had 19 five-star prospects and 47 four-star prospects, and the 2022 team had 15 five-star prospects and 53 four-star prospects.

But experience will be the problem. Only two of those 16 five-star players have started more than four games in Georgia. The defense returns just four players who started in the Sugar Bowl loss; the offense yields five, and one of them is Gunner Stockton, the quarterback whose first start came in that game. There will need to be a lot of rapid development on offense and defense against a schedule that includes trips to Tennessee (Week 3) and Auburn (Week 7) in the first half of the season with Alabama (Week 5) and Ole Miss (Week 7). 8) at home.

Compare that to Georgia's second championship team, which returned seven starting offensive players, including the quarterback. While the defense only returned a handful of key contributors, that group included Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, Kelee Ringo and Christopher Smith. Of course, that was in the early days of name, image and likeness, and who knows if Georgia would have been as successful in retaining the players who played sparingly in 2020-21 and then became starters and contributors in 2022.

Michigan last year and Ohio State this year showed that retention is key, as did Kirby Smart's three teams that reached the national championship game, including 2017. The Smarts 2025 team had more mixed results. Nine players still eligible have been chosen to turn pro, and 12 draft-qualified scholarship players are returning, though that number includes some who realistically wouldn't be picked. The expected starters who did return include cornerback Daylen Everette, defensive tackle Christen Miller, tight end Oscar Delp, wide receiver Dillon Bell and punter Brett Thorson. They are all important. But so would have been tailback Trevor Etienne, defenseman Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins and guards Dylan Fairchild and Jared Wilson. They are all fringe NFL prospects who would have helped this team.

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The comings and goings of the portal also seem like a break-even situation at best. Receivers Zac Branch (USC) and Noah Thomas (Texas A&M) could be upgrades. Safeties Zion Branch (USC), Adrian Maddox (UAB) and Jaden Harris (Miami) can provide at least one starter and depth. But the loss of Wilson hurts the pass rush. Then there's Carson Beck, who the team planned to lose in the draft but instead loses in a hefty NIL deal to quarterback-hungry Miami. It's up to Stockton or Ryan Puglisi to keep this from becoming a storyline next year.

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Ultimately, that will likely determine Georgia's fate next season: the development of players it brought in as high school recruits. Could Stockton or Puglisi be the starter at quarterback? Can tailback Nate Frazier be a star in the lead role?

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Are there any receivers or tight ends that will make a difference? This appears to be another deep group of solid players, but is there anyone who will scare the defense?

Can the offensive line, which struggled as a veteran unit in 2024, somehow improve despite the departure of four starters? Maybe a reset is good, and some talented players have experience. But it's still a concern.

The defense is just a general issue of young players getting better. Things could go pretty well in the back with Everette, safety KJ Bolden and the transfer safeties. The front seven has potential with Miller at defensive tackle and CJ Allen and Raylen Wilson at inside linebacker. But will they play a starring role, and how many of the talented freshman and sophomore players around them will become reliable contributors? Cornerback Ellis Robinson IV, linebackers Justin Williams and Chris Cole and defensive tackle Jordan Hall are all former top recruits, and their time is coming.

That's a lot of uncertainty. That's a lot of inexperience. And normally there would be a rebuilding year, apart from the national picture. Penn State is the closest to an Ohio State-type retention team, but has big questions with the receiver. Texas moves Arch Manning up to quarterback, but otherwise loses a lot on offense, including those tackles. Ohio State, Notre Dame and others will lose many of their teams.

There is no super team at the moment. So for all of Georgia's flaws and questions, and there are many, it could still start next year on familiar territory: a national title contender.

But given these shortcomings, questions and the schedule it will be difficult, even more difficult than last year. This could be the year where a young, flawed team loses too many regular season games and ends up in the Outback Bowl.

Or this could be a year where a young team grows up and grows up, plays its best ball and, well, that's anyone's guess. In this new world, Georgia's floor is lower, but the ceiling may still be the top.

(Top photo by Kirby Smart: Perry McIntyre/ISI Photos/Getty Images)