Georgia football: Win over Florida shines like fool’s gold
Georgia football fans were treated to a third straight win over hated rival Florida, but was it as big a win as many are projecting?
With this latest victory, the Georgia football program has won three straight games over the Florida Gators, and with that, they have now taken the permanent lead in the series for the 2010 decade. These are all fun talking points for the fanbase and alumni.
However, many members of the media were calling this year’s version of the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party the “de facto SEC East championship game”, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. When the Bulldogs walked off the turf at TIAA Bank Field as victors, they did not, in fact, come close to wrapping up the eastern division.
The win over Florida was a college football equivalent of fool’s gold. Pretty to look at and to show off to friends, but essentially worthless. Georgia still needs to navigate their way past Missouri, Auburn and Texas A&M before they can feel comfortable about heading to Atlanta. The win over Florida was just another step in the right direction after the disaster against South Carolina.
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In all truth, Georgia’s rise to the No. 6 spot in the latest AP Poll is just as misleading. Florida, while a good team, is not on the level of Alabama, LSU, Ohio State or even Penn State. They’re probably not even on the same level as Clemson.
The Gators were experiencing a micro-version of the 2013 Auburn Tigers, who lucked their way into an impressive season. Florida survived close calls with both Miami and Kentucky — teams who a Top 10 team should have handily beaten — and were the beneficiaries of some generous officiating in their victory over South Carolina.
In short, the Gators probably weren’t truly the No. 6 team in the nation or even a Top 15 team when they took the field against Georgia, something many in the media (myself included) had been saying for a number of weeks. The Bulldogs simply exposed some of the same weaknesses LSU did in their win over Florida, only not quite as boldly.
The No. 6 AP ranking is nice and makes fans feel good, but it’s important to remember that the rankings that really matter — the College Football Playoff Committee rankings — will be released on Nov. 5, and the Georgia football faithful shouldn’t be surprised to see their Dawgs drop down a few notches in that poll.
Regardless of where the Bulldogs land in that College Football Playoff rankings list, their path to the playoffs will be unchanged. Finish the season with no further losses. Win the SEC Championship Game. Land in the College Football Playoff.
Admire the fool’s gold if you like, but the true prize won’t be visible until the final gun sounds on November 30, and Jake Fromm, D’Andre Swift, Rodrigo Blankenship, and the one-loss Bulldogs are ready to enter the postseason to claim their stake in Atlanta.
Everything else is just a bunch of shiny rocks.