Athletic director Greg McGarity announced on Friday that a 2016 game with Georgia Southern would be moved up a year to 2015. The move fills a hole in the 2015 football schedule and completes the non-conference portion of the slate. After a couple of years with some high-profile non-conference opponents early in the season, 2015 will be much less ambitious.

A game against Georgia Southern has recently provided the Dawgs with an opportunity to work on the triple option in advance of the Georgia Tech game, and new coach Willie Fritz will keep some version of that offense in Statesboro.

Tech preparation aside (assuming they are still running the option), it’s a fairly lackluster non-conference schedule lined up for 2015. November in particular will offer no compelling home games. The only appealing non-conference game, Tech, will be on the road. Here’s the lineup:

• Southern University (Sept. 5)
• Louisana-Monroe (Nov. 7)
• Georgia Southern (Nov. 21)
• @ Georgia Tech (Nov. 28)

The SEC portion of the home schedule doesn’t look terribly hot at the moment either. Following the current scheduling rotation, Georgia should expect to see South Carolina, Missouri, and Kentucky from the East. There should also be a game against an SEC West opponent, but the SEC is still setting the schedule as it goes year-to-year.

The quality of the 2015 home schedule will depend a lot on that final unnamed SEC West opponent. It’s not likely to be recent visitors LSU or Ole Miss. Will it be a return visit from Arkansas? A game against Alabama or Texas A&M’s first SEC visit to Athens would improve the home slate. It’s also a remote possibility, but one worth noting, that the SEC could come out with a 9-game schedule by then. If so, which of the three non-conference games gets dropped?