ATHENS — It’s fair to say the Georgia football season has been filled with surprises, many of the most pleasant variety.

The great success Gunner Stockton has been the most surprising.

Raise your hand if you had Stockton finishing in the Top 10 of the Heisman Trophy voting ahead of the likes of preseason favorites Arch Manning, DJ Lagway, LaNorris Sellers, Garrett Nussmeier and Cade Klubnik.

Here’s a look back at this author’s five fearless Georgia preseason predictions, and how they turned out.

1. Ryan Puglisi will play a key role

To this point? Not at all, and Georgia fans and likely Puglisi himself, the good teammate that he is, probably hopes this one stays wrong.

But if it doesn’t — if the unexpected happens and Stockton has to miss some action in this rough and tumble game that has seen former UGA starting quarterbacks Jacon Eason, D’Wan Mathis, Stetson Bennett, J.T. Daniels and Carson Beck all miss time — Puglisi has the talent to help UGA finish the job.

2. Zachariah Branch will have 1,000 receiving yards

Branch leads the SEC with 73 catches, but he’s at 744 yards — 266 short of the magic 1,000-yard number.

At the current clip of 57.2 yards per game, Branch wouldn’t make 1,000 even if UGA plays the maximum three games that could be remaining.

Branch would need to average 85.3 yards per game over the next three games to hit 1,000 — we’ll stick with the prediction for now.

3 Georgia will average 200-yards plus rushing per game

Looking back, this was a bit too much to expect with four new offensive linemen and a new lead back.

Missouri (234.1) was the only SEC team to average more than 200 yards rushing per game, and of the remaining CFP teams, only Indiana (221.2) and Oregon (217.1) are averaging more than 200 yards per game.

Georgia is averaging 186.6 yards rushing per game — a major jump from the 124.4 yards per game averaged last year — but short of the preseason prediction.

This one came up wrong and seems unlikely to change with the level of competition still ahead.

4. Georgia’s home win streak will end

Yep, it happened against Alabama, 24-21, back on Sept. 27 when the Tide survived and snapped the Bulldogs’ 33-game home field win streak.

The prediction wasn’t so much about knowing Alabama would be the team to beat Georgia, so much as the sheer odds of such a feat continuing with capable teams like the Tide, Ole Miss and Texas all coming to Sanford Stadium.

5. Georgia will play in the SEC championship game

This one was spot on, and so was the logic ….

“Smart’s teams most often get better as the season progresses, and while one SEC loss seems more likely than not, the feeling here is the head coach will get whatever goes wrong fixed.

This Georgia team has stressed the sort of unity great teams possess and have likely realized they will need to band together to accomplish their goals….

The offense, while no longer possessing an NFL talent at quarterback, has more dynamic and consistent pass-catching weapons in addition to a deeper offensive backfield with tailback Nate Frazier ready to prove more reliable and certain with the ball in his hands.

It’s too early to predict Georgia will win the SEC Championship Game as injuries always seem to play a role.”

Injuries did play a role — but for both teams — and the Bulldogs handled those injuries and the playoff-related pressure than Alabama did.