The preseason Athlon All Americans dropped yesterday.
Not surprisingly, Georgia wasn’t leading the way with the most. That distinction went to a familiar foe.
The 2025 college football season is slated to start in late August, and with the Athlon Sports’ College Football Preview Magazine hitting newsstands, it’s time to honor the best of the best for the upcoming year. The SEC leads the way with 43 selections on the 2025 Athlon Sports’ All-America Team with the Big Ten up next with 38. The ACC has 21 selections, while the Big 12 follows with 17. Clemson (eight), Alabama (seven), Texas (seven), Penn State (seven), and Georgia (six) lead the way for the most selections by team.
Pardon me if I’m unmoved by preseason anything, but I find it hard to believe that the team that got waxed in Atlanta by the 2024 version of the Dawgs is that talented. Much preseason ballyhooing is also being done on behalf of the Tide, who again lost to Vanderbilt and Tennessee and Oklahoma (!) last year before losing to a much downgraded Michigan team in a bowl game.
Were these guys just not playing last year and they were being reserved for the 2025 season? Help me likewise understand where all the talent went at Georgia? Two special teams players make up 33% of our selections, as though we don’t have any talent that we brought in at receiver, or that our tight end room suddenly became a liability despite top recruiting at the position?
55 days can’t pass more quickly, if you ask me.
I really do not get the Clemson love this preseason. Last year’s team would have been 3rd tier in the SEC given the big donut they were given in games against SEC opponents. I really don’t get the Klubnik hype … I saw a QB in the Benz who in the words of Coach 30 the moment was too big and he pissed down his leg.
Everyone is saying Alabama threw a bunch of NIL at their top players to return. Once again, a team that lost 4 games and could have lost to South Carolina and us now with a new QB. They are banking on addition by subtraction moving from Milroe to Simpson (or whomever).
All that is not to say we aren’t flawed. We are. We are young. We likely lose twice (this is first time I’ve thought this in a long time) in the regular season.
We have the best program manager in the country. I imagine he is playing the doubted card every day in that building.
But Klubnik looked great at the Manning camp and against air. Good lord the hype machines as well as for Manning is insane
It seems to be a pattern with the pundits. All our issues will doom us, all our opponents issues will line up and resolve in their favor. Some things (injuries, bad calls, bad bounces) can’t be predicted. But if you look at talent available, and who’s preparing and developing the talent, how anyone could assume UGA is taking a step back at this point is a mystery.
You’ve expressed my thoughts better than I could have. Other teams will magically overcome their difficulties, while we will fail to do so… I expect to gripe about how we deal with some issues throughout the season, but do I have reason to trust Kirby? Simply put, YES. It’s easy to for pundits to spout what they think people want to hear without having to back it up or answer for it later.
But if we overcome and call them out, they’ll say I never doubted. You’re hearing things.
I really, really hope in December we can throw Josh Pate’s offseason words back in his face and stuff some crow au vin down his throat.
Klubnick just isn’t that good. Yet he came out of Westlake High in Texas (also produced Brees and Nick Foles among others). I’m a big believer that the competition you line up against in HS can very much be a predicator of future performance in CFB. And on paper Westlake High is big boy football. But something’s missing with this cat. I agree 100% that Clemson is overrated, but we may not know that until they get torched in a playoff game.
In the 80s I could not wait for the preseason magazines to hit the shelves. Looking back they were just hype machines with rose colored articles for each team. Last year was the 2nd worst team Kirby coached. I’m very interested in this team, on paper there are 3-4 losses. I’m starting to think the lack of proven all stars could create an extremely competitive environment for some kids to excel. Then I remember bobo is calling plays while the OL coach is mediocre on a good day.
Without serious, shiny B.S. content, those magazines don’t fly themselves off the shelves…GO DAWGS!!
Considering Georgia’s been locked into top 3 recruiting going back nearly a decade, I really wonder about this UGA drop-off buzz. I agree there are caveats–some big ifs—that are the fork in the road to future glory or whatever. I believe our defense will be solid, possibly elite. Our season hinges on the obvious big three–all on offense. Gunner’s development along with new WR’s, will these behemoths Searles has been recruiting develop as hoped, and of course can we get the vaunted UGA running attack back on track. Detractors can say what they will, but the odds are in our favor.
Other than AD Mitchell, what player has left the program in the free agency era that makes you go, “We’re going to miss that guy”? I guess that could be Damon Wilson this year … possibly Pop Dumas-Johnson last year.
It has mostly been a depth issue. It’s just hard to have depth anymore so you can’t afford many injuries at all. And we have been super unlucky as far as injuries the last two years. If we can just have a normal season where injuries are concerned I dont think there’s going to be any two or three losses for this team.
The places we’ve had injuries last year (cough, cough … the lines of scrimmage … cough, cough) were the spots that we’ve had a recruiting bust for a number of cycles before it came around to hurt us.
Good! Pump up the other teams and continue to overlook us. Kirby is just grinning because I think he knows what he’s got, a talented bunch of kids looking to make their marks. Dawgs on top when all the BS ends next January.
The source may be Kirby. He likes being the underdog. He will use this to motivate the team. I don’t get the doubt. Georgia is always doubted.
As Ranger Rusx would say, FTMFs.
Steele picked Ga #1 in the SEC, good enough for me
I think the Senator’s favorite magazine was Steele.