Georgia football: 5 bold predictions for 2020

Making bold predictions for Georgia football in the 2020 season.

Since Kirby Smart made his return to Georgia football, this time taking over as the head coach, the Bulldogs have known nothing but success. They went 8-5 in his first season but, in the three years since, they’ve won at least 11 games in every year and have made it to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game in addition to three SEC Championship Games.

And yet, the Dawgs have just one SEC title, no wins over Alabama and no national title to show for it. The next step for Smart in Athens is getting over that hump. Now coming off a truncated offseason and eyeing down a conference-only schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the question has to be asked if this is the year UGA makes that leap.

There is talent galore on this Bulldogs roster, even with having to replace Jake Fromm, D’Andre Swift and several others. With that in mind, here are five bold predictions for Georgia football in the 2020 season.

Georgia football bold prediction No. 5: Zamir White breaks out as a star

D’Andre Swift and, to a lesser degree, Brian Herrien formed yet another standout rushing duo for Georgia over the past couple of seasons. No matter what was happening with Fromm in the passing offense, they always knew that one of those guys would be able to pick up a chunk of yards, either as a runner or a pass-catcher coming out of the backfield.

With the departure of those two players, though, sophomore running back and former 5-star recruit Zamir White is the most obvious breakout candidate for the Dawgs in the 2020 season. He’s stepping into a clear opportunity in an offense that has plenty of questions but also has the talent to live up to any hype that’s already being created.

As a freshman last year, White appeared in 12 games but only had 78 carries. However, he still put up 408 yards and three touchdowns with that limited workload. As the featured back in the offense, there’s no reason to believe that he can’t put on an absolute show.

Whenever you’re looking for potential breakout stars in a given season, the best way to identify those players is flashes of talent mixed with increasing opportunity. White may be one of the best examples in the entire country of that, the perfect storm for a star in the making. It would be shocking if he wasn’t a 1,000-yard rusher — pretty easily — in the 2020 campaign.