Most talented Georgia Bulldogs football team ever? Shane Beamer thinks so

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer has lofty praise for the 2021 Georgia Bulldogs.

How high? Try best ever for the red and black.

Head coach Kirby Smart “may have, probably does have, the most talented football team in the history of Georgia football, and that’s not an embellishment,” Beamer told reporters on Tuesday. “From top to bottom, the 11 that start on 11 and 11 that start on defense, all of their special teams units, the depth that they have, the size, the physicality, the speed.”

Beamer coached on Smart’s staff from 2016-17. Those two years include the Bulldogs’ 2017 team that lost the College Football Playoff National Championship in a close overtime contest to Alabama.

Beamer spent several minutes of his weekly press conference Tuesday talking up this year’s version of the Georgia Bulldogs.

“Wow. There is a reason they were picked to win the SEC East,” he said. “The talent just jumps off the tape at you. Obviously they’ve had some great players in the past. I’ve coached against a lot of them. Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno and AJ Green, those teams. I was a part of a really talented team that played for a national championship with Roquan Smith, Nick Chubb and Sony Michel and those guys.”

Georgia has one national championship for college football, a 1980 title that coincided running back Herschel Walker’s freshman season.

This year’s Georgia team has collected plenty of national attention and is ranked No. 2 in the AP Top 25. The Bulldogs won a Week 1 matchup with Clemson and handily defeated UAB last weekend. South Carolina enters the matchup at 2-0 as well, after defeating Eastern Illinois and East Carolina.

Georgia will be the Gamecocks’ first SEC matchup of the Beamer era. South Carolina travels to Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia, for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Saturday.

How to watch South Carolina vs Georgia football game

Who: South Carolina Gamecocks (2-0, 0-0 SEC) vs. Georgia Bulldogs (2-0, 0-0 SEC)

Where: Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga.

When: 7 p.m. Saturday

TV: ESPN

Stream: via ESPN app

Line: Georgia by 31