With spring football just around the corner, we can begin looking forward to the 2019 season. And once again, Georgia will be involved in one of the most interesting matchups of the year. The folks at Athlon Sports feel that Georgia vs Notre Dame in week four (September 21) will be the Southeastern Conference's third-most intriguing non-conference clash of the season. Texas A&M at Clemson (Sept. 7) came in at No. 1 on the list, with LSU at Texas (Sept. 7) at No. 2.

Kirby Smart's Bulldogs limped to the finish line last season but should have no trouble getting up for this marquee matchup with the Fighting Irish. Ian Book and Jake Fromm could very well put on a quarterback clinic in this late September showdown between the hedges.

The last contest between these two teams, a 21-19 Georgia in South Bend, was one Bulldog fans won't soon forget. The UGA faithful invaded Chicago and Indianapolis in the days prior to the game and composed 50 percent of the crowd as Smart and company grabbed a signature win. It was Jake Fromm's first start after being inserted into the game a week earlier against Appalachian State when Jacob Eason went down with a knee injury.

UGA's defense dominated with nine tackles for a loss, three sacks, and three forced fumbles, paving the way for the Bulldogs to make a College Football Playoff run. Notre Dame went on to go 10-3 with a win over LSU in the Citrus Bowl. ESPN actually likes the matchup more, calling it the top non-conference game of the 2019 season. Last week, an early projection for the game had Georgia seen as a 10.5-point home favorite over Notre Dame.

The early prediction may throw some for a loop considering the fact that Notre Dame is considered a consensus Top 10 team at this point in the offseason, including a No. 5 ranking in the updated ESPN way-too-early Top 25. The last time these two teams took the field in South Bend two seasons ago, Georgia escaped with a 20-19 win, on its way to its first-ever inclusion in the College Football Playoff. Coming up just short of a return trip after a 35-28 loss to Alabama in the 2018 SEC Championship, the Bulldogs have plenty of motivation to return in 2019.

Fourth-year head coach Kirby Smart and his staff just reeled in the nation's No. 2 recruiting class in 2019, according to 247Sports Composite Team Rankings, and the Bulldogs have a chance to reel in another special group in the 2020 cycle.

Georgia will look to continue its momentum gained from the 2018 season this year and have been among the talks of being in a prime spot early to potentially contend for an SEC title in 2019. As the expectations remain sky-high on Kirby Smart to return to the SEC Championship and potentially get revenge on Alabama, this may be the best chance for the Bulldogs to win its first national championship since 1980. Georgia is considered a preseason top 5 team by most outlets and experts, with many pegging the Bulldogs as the No. 3 team heading into the season. Aside from gaining graduate transfer tight end Eli Wolf and graduate transfer wide receiver Lawrence Cager, Smart has a lot of proven talent at his disposal at almost every position. The Bulldogs return 13 starters, five on offense and six on defense, from a Georgia team coming off an 11-3 season, having won the SEC East Division but falling just short of repeating as SEC Champions and suffering a 28-21 loss in the Allstate Sugar Bowl to Texas.

The Bulldogs have yet to announce the start of spring drills but it will likely be somewhere around the time when students return to campus from spring break on March 18. The annual G-Day spring scrimmage is set for Saturday, April 20, set to begin at 2 p.m. ET and be carried by the SEC Network. The Bulldogs begin their 2019 schedule with a conference game at Vanderbilt on August 31. It's the first time that UGA has opened with an SEC team since 1995 and the first time it has done so on the road since 1994. South Carolina was the opponent in both of those games.

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