If you’re looking for an example of how different the Georgia football and Florida programs are, look no further than the most recent SEC Media Days.
Georgia football’s program is starting to differentiate itself from other programs, and the 2019 SEC Media days showed that.
There’s just something about SEC Media Days. When you bring all those coaches and players together into one place and give reporters free rein to go at them, it always delivers.
Whether it’s Jeremy Pruitt talking about his wife’s apparent impact on his program to Ed Orgeron taking a dig at a player that spurned him in recruiting, it’s certainly never dull.
One thing that continues to stand out to me as a Georgia fan, however, is the continued difference between the way the Dawgs and Florida conduct themselves in this environment.
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After starting the offseason in very belligerent fashion, Dan Mullen and his players dialed down the Georgia criticism a touch this year.
Mullen actually suggested that Georgia wasn’t even their main rival, that Florida State and Miami (seriously?) were just as important.
In doing so, he stepped back from his narrative of continually talking about Georgia, which was starting to become embarrassing.
Speaking of embarrassing, Mullen also made a rather large deal about the customer sneakers that he wore alongside his suit to the event.
I don’t even know where to begin who how utterly ridiculous this is.
This year, Mullen left the ‘trash talk’ of the Dawgs to his players. Almost immediately after last years 17 point loss to the Georgia, prominent Gator players claimed that despite the score, they actually should have won the game.
Defensive lineman Jabari Zuniga continued that line of thought again because why not. If there’s one thing this Gator team is getting good at, it’s losing to Georgia and then telling everyone how much better they are than the team that beat them.
I almost cannot wait for the trash talk that will undoubtedly come out the week before the game in Jacksonville.
In contrast to this performance, Georgia continues to be the definition of professionalism.
Say what you like about Kirby Smart, but the guy knows how to handle a press conference, and he doesn’t say anything negative about other programs. He’s also clearly not satisfied with previous years, going out of his way to point out that five losses in two years is not good enough for this program. Considering the success that he’s had in those two seasons, that’s saying an awful lot.
Georgia’s players didn’t seem satisfied either. The ‘do more’ mantra that Kirby mentioned appears to have fully sunk into the players.
J.R. Reed, Andrew Thomas and Jake Fromm all seemed unsatisfied with how the past few seasons have gone.
The players didn’t say anything about how they should have won this game or that one but instead talked about how they need to keep getting better if they are going to achieve their goals.
Tiny margins make the difference, and there was little doubt listening to these three that the players have fully bought into finding those.
It’s become a common theme to see these two teams behave so differently. Despite losing the past two matchups, Florida remains the team that boasts and trash talks.
Georgia seems to have other things on their mind. This year the three representatives were all players that Kirby Smart brought in himself to the team. All of them carried themselves like professionals ready for the next level where each of them will likely play in a year.
Before that happens, however, is the biggest season most Georgia fans can remember.
Despite the loss of Jeremiah Holloman, this Georgia team is the most talented group that Smart has had at his disposal since arriving in Athens.
We won’t know if they will live up to that hype for quite so time, but there is a quiet confidence about this team that suggests that they understand how important 2019 is. All the indications are that this team is ready for the season; it will be interesting to see if the same can be said about Florida.