Saturday Spotlight
(9) Florida Gators at (7) Georgia Bulldogs
Florida: I think a lot of people really underestimated them coming into this year and I’ll admit that I was one of them. All they really needed was a change at head coach and that’s definitely made all the difference. The job just wasn’t getting done under Jim McElwain and their defense was always stronger than their offense and if you want to play in the SEC, you must be able to score points anytime the opportunity is presented to you. Now that Dan Mullen is there, there’s improvement all around. The defense is still one of the best units in the conference, but now their offense is able to sustain drives and win the time of possession battle and they score! Right now, they’re 6-1 and in first place in the SEC East and have a quality win over the LSU Tigers, a game that many didn’t think they even had a chance in. After that win, they beat Vanderbilt and went into their bye winners of five in a row. It’s good when football programs who have struggled for a while are relevant once again and that’s been the case with these Gators. Those days when they were winning championships with Tim Tebow were definitely legendary. This is another big game for them today in their annual showdown with the Georgia Bulldogs.
Georgia: They had been rolling for a majority of the season and looked unbeatable to many. A few weeks back in Baton Rouge, they hit a wall and suffered their first loss of the season. What exactly went wrong for them? Well, LSU just played great defense against the Bulldogs from Athens, Georgia. Jake Fromm had absolutely no time to throw the ball because of the enormous amounts of pressure he was under throughout the game, the running game was shut down and the LSU secondary played the Georgia receivers tight with plastering man to man coverage and didn’t give them an ounce or inch of space. That was by far the worst I had seen the Georgia Bulldogs look since their loss to the Auburn Tigers last season. Despite that, I still like their chances to win the division, get back to Atlanta for the SEC title game and make the playoffs but for all of that happen, they need to win out and a few teams ahead of them need to lose. Let’s not write them off so quickly because this is still one of the best teams in college football and they are still ranked in the top ten for a reason. Hopefully, the bye week did them some good and they fixed all the issues they had prior to the week off. Their big stretch of games to finish off the season begins this afternoon against the Florida Gators.
Florida Player To Watch: Jordan Scarlett– I can see Florida trying to use the running game to try and wear down the Georgia front seven like LSU did a few weeks back. It’ll take that offensive line to get a tremendous push up front to open up some holes for Jordan.
Georgia Player To Watch: Mecole Hardman– He’s become one of Jake Fromm’s top targets and arguably their number one receiver. He’s a reliable target and he can always be counted on to make a big catch whether it’s in the red area or on third down to move the chains.
Prediction: This is always a fun matchup when these two meet up and it’s by far one of the biggest games of the day. This is an important game in the SEC East and the winner will continue to control its destiny and go on to clinch the division in a few weeks and the loser will be in a bigger hole and digging themselves out of it will be a difficult task. Georgia needs to get off to a quick start early on because when they do, they’re impossible to get out of their rhythm. Florida needs to keep Felipe Franks protected because this Georgia pass rush is a good one that can take over a game at any time.
Prediction: Georgia 29 Florida 21
