SEC Media Days: There’s An Asterisk Hanging Over Athens Like A Summer Thunderstorm

If Dawgs’ schedule downgrades them, will it help or hurt the Gators?

Kirby Smart is going to walk into that Tampa Marriott ballroom on Tuesday, July 21, wearing his championship rings and his game face and somewhere between the third and fourth question about Gunner Stockton, somebody’s going to ask him the one that’s been gnawing at Bulldog Nation all summer: 

“Georgia, why does your schedule read like a cakewalk?”

Because here’s the deal, folks. ESPN’s Football Power Index has the Dawgs locked in at No. 5 nationally to open the year — behind only Ohio State, Texas, Notre Dame and Oregon — with a 22.9% shot at the SEC, a 63.7% shot at the Playoff, and a 9% shot at the whole shebang, the national title (247Sports). That’s rarefied air for a program that’s now won back-to-back SEC titles and made four of the last five Playoffs — the only team in the sport that can say that.

But there’s that asterisk hanging over Athens like a summer thunderstorm, and it’s this: Georgia’s strength of schedule ranks a modest 20th nationally — dead last among the 16 SEC schools. 

That’s the part I ponder as we roll into Talkin’ Season and the buzz amps up in Gainesville. Jon Sumrall, who appears on Wednesday, announced he is bringing Jadan Baugh, Myles Graham and Vernell Brown III.

There appears to be an increasingly group of experts hopping on the Jon Sumrall bandwagon — among them former Gator coach Urban Meyer.

In his recent podcast “Triple Option,” asked to name the top five coaches he was excited to watch in 2026 listed

1. Kyle Whittingham, Michigan

2. Jon Sumrall, Florida

3. Lane Kiffin, LSU

4. Matt Campbell, Penn State

5. Curt Cignetti, Indiana

Media Days voters don’t just hand out trophies for talent — they factor in the gauntlet. And Georgia’s gauntlet, this go-round, is missing some teeth. 

Yes, they still tangle with No. 8 Alabama, No. 12 Oklahoma and No. 14 Ole Miss, and yes, the annual blood feud with Florida in Atlanta on Oct. 31 is still circled in red. But there’s no LSU on this slate, no true road test that scares you the way Georgia’s gauntlets used to.

So will the media downgrade the Dawgs when they gather in Tampa? A little — and it’s already starting. Texas, riding Arch Manning’s Heisman buzz, has edged ahead of Georgia in the SEC championship odds board and last year’s preseason media poll already had Texas topping Georgia 96 votes to 44 for the crown.

Kirby himself sees the writing on the wall — he told Paul Finebaum back in April, half-exasperated, “Apparently all we can do is win the SEC championship right now, so that’s not good enough.” 

That’s a program being punished for its own excellence, and a coach who knows it.

Now — is a slightly humbled Georgia good news or bad news for the Gators? It’s both, and that’s what makes this profession fun.

Good news first: Every ounce of preseason oxygen that gets sucked toward Austin and Columbus is oxygen that isn’t suffocating Jon Sumrall on Wednesday, July 22, the very next day at that same Tampa podium. Nobody’s grilling a first-year Gator coach about national title odds when Texas and Georgia are hogging the marquee. That means there’s room to build, quietly, the Sumrall way — no days off, no excuses.

And there’s real substance behind that. 

Florida’s own strength of schedule has actually improved to 28th nationally — no LSU for the first time since 1970, and the brutal in-state trips to Miami and USF swapped for FAU and Campbell. ESPN’s SP+ projects an 11.4-point jump for Florida, from 3.5 to 14.9 — the fifth-best improvement in the country. 

Jadan Baugh’s back after the seventh-best rushing season in school history. There’s a case building in the Swamp, even if the world isn’t watching it yet.

Here’s the bad news, though: A Georgia team that senses even a whiff of disrespect is the most dangerous animal in this conference. 

Kirby has turned “chip on the shoulder” into a coaching philosophy, and a team that returns 14 starters, quarterback Gunner Stockton and safety KJ Bolden isn’t going to play like a No. 5-ranked afterthought — they’re going to play like they’ve got something to prove, which usually ends with somebody else’s season getting wrecked in Atlanta on Halloween weekend. 

And by the way, Florida’s own path is no picnic regardless of what the pundits say about Georgia’s — one composite ranking actually has the Gators’ 2026 slate as the fourth-toughest in the SEC, tougher than Georgia’s, Alabama’s or Vanderbilt’s.

So when the cameras swing to Kirby on Tuesday and to Sumrall on Wednesday in Tampa, don’t expect a full-blown Georgia dethroning. Expect a proud program getting needled about an easy September, a coach who’ll bristle right on cue, and a Gators team quietly building its case one podium appearance behind. That’s Talkin’ Season, y’all — see you in Tampa.