Photo Credit: Emily Selby/UGA Athletics

"Third place? Really, guys?"

New UGA football coach Kirby Smart knows he needs to win and win in a hurry to keep the fan base happy.

Unfortunately for him (and us), the media doesn’t have a whole lot of faith.

At the SEC Media Days conference in Hoover last week, sportswriters picked Georgia to finish third in the East, behind predicted division winner Tennessee and Florida.

Alabama is the overwhelmingly favorite in the West and the writers’ choice to win the conference.

The good news is, the Bulldogs did get 45 out of 331 first-place votes in spite of questions at quarterback and tailback due to Nick Chubb’s knee injury last year and Sony Michel’s recently broken arm. These are big “ifs,” but if freshman QB Jacob Eason is all he’s cracked up to be, there’s no reason why the Dawgs can’t challenge for the division title.