ATLANTA — While you could easily say that 2024 was a good year for college football in the state of Georgia, by previous standards, you might not be able to say that it was great.
Most of the bigger programs in the state are done playing, except Georgia and Georgia Tech, and as of Christmas time, Georgia still has a chance to win a National Championship.
2024 ushered in a lot of change in the game. The Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) expanded their playoffs from four to twelve teams. The transfer portal along with Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) money continues to change how rosters are built and teams line up each week.
And while Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Kennesaw State, West Georgia, Valdosta State and others don’t get the same headlines as Georgia or Georgia Tech, all of them had their own successes and occasional failures during the past year.
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2024 was a challenge for the Georgia Bulldogs. Ranked No. 1 in almost every preseason poll, they got off to a great start, winning their first two games by a combined 82-6. But they followed that with a 13-12 win at Kentucky and a loss to Alabama. A four-game winning streak came to a screeching halt on Nov. 9 when Ole Miss handed them a 28-10 loss.
Kirby Smart’s Dogs took care of business from there, winning their final four games, including an eight-overtime thriller against Georgia Tech and a 22-19, overtime win vs. Texas in the SEC Championship game.
With their next game being the Sugar Bowl, played on New Year’s Day, Georgia football story has technically already been written for 2024. The Sugar Bowl matchup with Notre Dame will write the beginning of their 2025 adventures.
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Georgia Tech on paper, ends 2024 in a similar, yet different place than the previous year. The regular season record was exactly the same, 7-5. But an upset win over Miami and the overtime thriller vs. Georgia gave the Yellow Jacket faithful cause for optimism. Of course, the new contract for Head Coach Brent Key has helped as well.
The Yellow Jackets will close out 2024 against Vanderbilt on Dec. 27 in the Birmingham Bowl.
Georgia Southern was another team that made it to a bowl in 2024. The Eagles finished the regular season at 8-4, but lost their bowl game to Sam Houston State. Coach Clay Helton’s team made strides after consecutive 6-7 seasons.
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For Georgia State, 2024 was a little rough. New Coach Del McGee had the Panthers playing hard, but they only managed a 3-9 record, which was a little worse than the 6-6 record of the previous season.
Kennesaw State struggled through their first season as an FBS team going 2-10. The Owls fired Brian Bohannon late in the season, but just a couple of weeks later, they hired a new coach, Jerry Mack.
West Georgia also struggled, going 4-7 this past season while Valdosta State had one of their best seasons in recent memory. The Blazers went 13-1 and made it to the Division II Championship game where they lost to Ferris State 49-14.
While the book isn’t closed on college football in the state of Georgia, most of the story has already been written. The bar for success is always pretty high, but all-in-all, the football programs in the Peach State came pretty close once again to reaching it.