Sports

ESPN Hosts Jab UGA Fans Ahead Of 2023 Football Season

#College Football
by Last Updated
Kirk Herbstreit on the field at an NFL game.

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A pair of ESPN hosts were seen picking fun at UGA fans ahead of the 2023 college football season. Kirk Herbstreit and Rece Davis jabbed the fanbase for feeling disrespected, once again, during the offseason.

Despite winning back-to-back national titles, the Bulldogs aren’t everyone’s trendy pick to win a third straight championship in the coming season. Instead, many have pegged Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, and even Texas as being the front runners.

Some of this comes due to the departure of quarterback Stetson Bennett, in addition to the loss of key pieces along the offensive and defensive lines. On top of that, they’ll be competing in the most difficult conference in America though the ’23 slate is shaping up to be a bit light.

While those are valid concerns, Georgia fans believe their program has earned the right to be considered national championship favorites.

And they’ve seen the story play out before.

Just last year, most predicted the ‘Dawgs would take a step back after losing eight starting defenders (and 15 players total) to the NFL Draft. That included top overall pick Travon Walker along with four other first round picks.

Kirby Smart’s bunch used that motivation to win a title, though some of their claims were a bit exaggerated. After the championship victory, some players went as far as to say that the media picked the team to go 7-5, which is absurd considering they were the overwhelming choice to represent the East in the SEC Championship Game.

While ridiculous, the same narrative is somehow creeping back into the minds of those UGA fans as they cry for more respect online.

Davis and Herbstreit have finally had enough, it seems.

Davis responded to those UGA fans by saying, “Just because I want to see the QB before I rank them 1 instead of 2 or 3 is hardly insulting. It’s amusing to see things like fabricated 7-5 picks. Everyone knows they could send their 3rd team out and go 7-5 or better.”

Herbstreit quickly retweet the response with a sarcastic caption that read, “RD stop it – You know EVERYONE secretly “hates” UGA and doubts them every step of the way! Hopefully they can beat Vandy this year!”

“Poor old Georgia. Just try to scrape enough guys together to buckle the chinstraps every Saturday,” Davis replied to his ESPN co-host with Herbstreit answering, “Exactly. Just hoping they’ve got enough helmets and uniforms for the lads.”

The fact is that even if an analyst isn’t picking the ‘Dawgs, it doesn’t mean they don’t respect them as a program. In fact, the majority of the media likely has them in their preseason top 3.

History is against Georgia as there hasn’t been a back-to-back-to-back champ in college football since Minnesota accomplished the feat between 1934-36.

If you need the motivation, have at it. It obviously worked out last season.