Georgia football: Observations of the Bulldogs opponents after week five
Georgia football is coming off a dominant 41-0 victory over the Tennessee Volunteers. How did teams on the Bulldogs schedule fare?
Once again, Georgia football looked like the best team in the SEC East and a true contender to Alabama’s throne on top of the SEC. Meanwhile, teams on the Bulldogs schedule either struggled or showed signs of weakness. Besides of course Auburn who blew out Mississippi State, and Missouri who didn’t play.
But what did we learn specifically about everyone on the schedule? Here are some things I observed watching those opponents this past weekend. As always, we will exclude the upcoming opponent as they’ll be looked at more in-depth in a game preview later this week.
Florida wins big, but loses two stars
The Gators have bounced back since their season opening loss to Michigan in which they had virtually no offense. However, their wins haven’t been all that impressive. This past week was no exception as Florida beat Vanderbilt 38-24.
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Keep in mind that this was one-week removed from Alabama beating Vandy 59-0. And Florida was considered to have one of the SEC’s better defenses. Against one of the conferences more mediocre offenses, the Gators allowed 24 points and allowed Kyle Shurmur to pass for 264 yards with three touchdowns.
And looking back, if Tennessee uses John Kelly more, and if the referees didn’t slap Kentucky with a ridiculous holding call, the Gators probably give up 30-plus points in those games. So how great is this Florida defense? One of the biggest questions about the Florida coaching staff was could they maintain the great defense that Will Muschamp left them? So far in 2017, the answer is no.
Offensively however, the Gators finally had a good game without any help. Against Kentucky of course, the Wildcats failed to lineup against receivers twice leading to a pair of touchdowns. But against Vandy, the Gators offense scored five rushing touchdowns.
They passed for 249 yards between Felipe Franks and Luke Del Rio, while rushing for 218 led by Malik Davis and Lamical Perine. But that was against a Vanderbilt defense that gave up 59 to Alabama and showed a severe lack of depth in that loss. 21 of Florida’s 38 points came after the game was tied at 17 during halftime.
All was not great in Gainesville though. Del Rio and receiver Tyrie Cleveland got injured during that game. Del Rio is out for the rest of the year while Cleveland has no timetable for his return. These two injuries add to one season-ending injury from the off-season and the nine players suspended.