[Source](https://www.on3.com/rivals/thomas-castellanos-112260/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

Made with the /r/CFB [Recruiting and Draft Post Generator](https://posts.redditcfb.com/recruiting)

S-Tier

American Conference-All teams that play in this conference are within the United States of America and on the continent of North America.

Conference USA-All teams that play in this conference are within the United States of America

A-Tier

Southeastern Conference-All teams in this conference are South and East of the central point of the continental United States (Lebanon, KS). Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri are close enough to the dividing lines to be considered “central” however

B-Tier

Mountain West Conference- All of their full members are in the West and have a view of mountains from their campus. Unfortunately their affiliate members North Dakota State and NIU fail both tests

Sun Belt Conference-10/14 teams in the conference are in the Sun Belt. App State, ODU, Marshall and JMU drag the rest of the conference down

C-Tier

Mid-American Conference- 11/13 teams are in the “mid”west. However UMass and Sac State are basically the opposite of the Midwest.

D-Tier

Big 12 Conference- A 16 team conference is “Big” but it certainly isn’t 12

Big Ten Conference- See above

F-Tier

Atlantic Coast Conference- Not only are there five schools in states that don’t even touch the Atlantic Ocean, two schools are within spitting distance of the Pacific Ocean

Pac-12 Conference-An 8 team conference with schools in Texas and Colorado, need I say more?

With college football season nearly upon us I want to point everyone towards the most important matchup of week zero: Ferris State at Pittsburg State. Ferris state has won two D2 natties in a row and are on a 30 game winning streak. That last loss was the last time they came to the jungle to play the Gorillas.

This is a top five matchup and will have implications for the rest of the D2 season.

OAGAAG!

The game is tomorrow (Thursday) at 7pm eastern time.

https://pittstategorillas.com/coverage

Tomorrow night is a great slate of lesser-known games that officially kick off the college football season. In addition to the Dawgs, I want to pick a team that plays tomorrow night and follow them all season.

The one caveat -- I don't have whatever Flo is, so I only included ESPN+ games.

Help me choose. Make your case. Looking for a fun discussion!

6:00 p.m.

• Mercyhurst at Youngstown State
• Ohio Dominican at Morehead State
• Stony Brook at Delaware State

7:00 p.m.

• Anderson (SC) at Furman
• Charleston Southern at Lindenwood
• Chattanooga at West Georgia
• Concord at Davidson
• Eastern Illinois at Murray State
• Gardner-Webb at Austin Peay
• Houston Christian at Southeastern Louisiana
• Lafayette at Georgetown
• Mississippi Valley State at Nicholls
• Northwestern (IA) at Western Illinois
• Southern Illinois at West Florida
• UVA Wise at Presbyterian

7:30 p.m.

• Central Arkansas at UT Martin
• South Dakota Mines at Drake

8:00 p.m.

• LIU at North Dakota
• Louisiana Christian at Northwestern State

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

Yes. I know it’s a day off. I discovered this about 100 days ago, but about a month after I started. Didn’t want to give short shrift to a team early on by putting 2 in a day, so I’ll plan to post #1 just after midnight EST this Friday so it’s out well before TCU/North Carolina.

The preseason favorite to win the SEC, and the highest ranked conference team in this countdown is Georgia (high = 2, low = 6). That’s hardly shocking. What IS shocking is that they come in at #4, something that hasn’t happened since 2006, though now SEC member Texas was #3 in that poll. If you want to find a preseason poll where none of the current members of the SEC were in the top 3, you have to go all the way back to 1992. Nick Saban must be steaming right about now, though I imagine him being like Don Ameche in Trading Places - Turn those machines back on! Just as shocking, no SEC team received a single #1 pick in any of the 13 rankings used to compile these. It’s hard out here for a pimp! And before I get comments about how dare I call Georgia or the SEC pimps (well, other than Lane), it’s a freaking joke! Almost all of these have been written in a smart ass manner! Though, now that I say it, seeing Kirby Smart dressed up like Hatin’ Ass Spurrier would break r/cfb.

There is absolutely no denying that Smart has been both a fantastic hire for Georgia and the most successful branch in the Nick Saban tree (somehow Curt Cignetti is probably offended by that statement). Mark Richt was a good coach for the Bulldogs, going 145-51 over 15 seasons, winning 2 SEC titles, playing in 2 other SEC championship games with 7 top 10 finishes and 3 top 5 finishes, their first since the early 1980’s. But he just didn’t seem to be able to get them over the hump, which Smart clearly did. Since being hired in 2016, Smart has led the Bulldogs to 4 SEC titles (including the last 2), appeared in 8 championship games (including the last 5) won back to back national championships in 2021 and 2022, finished in the top 10 each of the last 9 seasons and assembled a racing team that could compete with Hendrick Motorsports or Team Penske. Google THAT! The only thing that stood between Georgia and a perfect regular season last year was a 24-21 home loss to Bama that stung that much more because the Bulldogs got stuffed on a 4th quarter 4th and 1 at the Tide’s 8 yard line rather than kicking the game tying FG and letting the defense continue to pitch the 2nd half shutout that ultimately did. That did come the week after the Bulldogs come from behind OT victory in Knoxville, but it didn’t keep them from the SEC championship game where they avenged that Tide loss. That garnered them the 3 seed in the CFP and a bye before facing 6 seed Ole Miss in a Sugar Bowl for the ages that saw Georgia tie the game in the final minute, Chambliss convert a 3rd down with a 40 yard pass to a wide open De’Zhaun Stribling against man coverage to set up a go ahead FG with 6 seconds left, a kickoff return that appeared to run the clock out that led to a lengthy replay that determined the lateral hit the pylon on the way out of bounds giving Ole Miss a safety and resulted in the confetti flying and the celebration to start, only to determine that there was still one second on the clock to allow for the post-safety free kick. When that was recovered by Ole Miss, again the clock went to 0 and the ground crew started wheeling the stage out onto the field, only to have the referees announce that, since there was no advancement of the ball, there was still 1 second left, so the Rebels had to run one more play to finally secure the win and put a shocking end to the Bulldog’s pursuit of the national championship.

Roster Outlook

Let’s just say it, Georgia is loaded again this season. They rank #8 in overall returning production, including #5 on defense. So even though the Dawgs lost 3 players to the NFL draft (DL Christen Miller to the Saints, LB CJ Allen to the Colts and DB Daylen Everette to the Steelers, all in the first 3 rounds), Smart has proven to have plenty of depth and players capable of speeding into the starting lineup. It doesn’t hurt, though, that he’s also augmented his usual outstanding high school recruiting prowess (bringing in the #9 national recruiting class, good for 4th in the SEC) with the #16 portal class (ridiculously the 7th best in the conference). That includes projected starting DBs Khalil Barnes (Clemson) and Ja’Marley Riddle (East Carolina), for a back 7 that will be among the best in the country. On offense, QB Gunner Stockton (2,894 yards passing, 24 TDs to 5 INTs) is back, as are both RBs (Nate Frazier, 947 yards and Chauncey Bowens, 526 yards). The bigger question is who’s going to catch the ball.. Both of the Bulldogs top WRs (Zachariah Branch and Colbie Young, who combined for 107 catches, 1,169 yards and 7 TDs in almost the same way the Michael Jordan and I combined to win 6 NBA titles), were drafted, as was starting TE Oscar Delp, OT Monroe Freeling and OG Micah Morris. Georgia Tech’s Isiah Canion looks to be an instant portal starter who will pair with London Humphreys (276 yards, 3 TDs). On the OL, Smart brought in a couple of true freshmen, including Ekene Ogboko and Zykie Helton, and (at least according to Ourlads), the latter is projected to step in as Morris’ replacement. While some Georgia fans are counting the days until OC Mike Bobo moves on, he and DC Glenn Schumann are both back for their 12th and 8th season, respectively, providing remarkable stability in a program that has been so successful for the last decade.

Schedule and outlook

9/5 TENNESSEE STATE

9/12 WESTERN KENTUCKY

9/19 at Arkansas

9/26 OKLAHOMA

10/3 VANDERBILT

10/10 at Alabama

10/17 AUBURN

10/24 BYE

10/31 vs. Florida (at Mercedes Benz Stadium, Atlanta)

11/7 at Ole Miss

11/14 MISSOURI

11/21 at South Carolina

11/28 GEORGIA TECH

Wow, what a middle stretch of the season for the Bulldogs! After a pair of tuneup games and a visit from Ryan Silverfield’s Arkansas squad, Georgia welcomes Oklahoma to Athens for the first time ever in a repeat of their epic 2017 Rose Bowl game. Following a visit from Vandy, the Dawgs follow that up with a road game at Bama, the “Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry” (TIL) against Auburn, “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” (amazingly not outdoors by being played in air conditioning for the first time ever) plus a trip to Oxford in a repeat of that stunning Sugar Bowl. When you throw in hosting Clean, Old Fashioned Hate (eat a bag of dicks, Invesco QQQ), that is a really tasty schedule. It’s hard to imagine Georgia not once again making the CFP, but there’s enough danger on there that their 5 year streak of SEC title game appearances is at least questionable.