UGA Football: Why the Bulldogs will win the SEC East again in 2020
By Eric Taylor
The gap between UGA football and Florida is as wide as ever.
It is being said that Georgia is going to lose the SEC East to its biggest SEC East rival, Florida, this season. When you look at the unit rankings that is hard to believe. Athlon Sports ranks Georgia’s quarterback, running back, offensive line, defensive line, linebacker, and defensive back groups above Florida. So how can Florida be better than Georgia?
How can a team that hasn’t recruited as well as Georgia be better than them? In 2017, Georgia came in at No. 3 in 247Sports’ team recruiting rankings, Florida came in No. 11. In 2018, Georgia’s class was ranked No. 1 while Florida came in at No. 14. Then in 2019, Georgia ranked No. 2 while Florida was ranked No. 9. In 2020, Florida came in at No. 9 again while Georgia claimed the No. 1 class for the second time in three years.
Over these four recruiting cycles Florida has averaged a rating of 90.28 per recruit while Georgia is averaging 93.01.
Between the talent already on Georgia’s roster, the talent it keeps piling up every recruiting cycle, and the fact that Florida can’t even crack the top five in recruiting makes it hard to believe that just because Georgia has changed offensive philosophies that Florida has caught them. Georgia beat Florida last year with the No. 49 scoring offense while Florida was No. 22.
Not only does Florida not have the talent, but Dan Mullen couldn’t beat Coach Smart when he had the upper hand on offense, and Mullen is supposed to be an offensive genius. To add insult to injury, the only SEC East team that has beaten Georgia in the past three seasons is South Carolina. Will Muschamp was able to accomplish what Mullen hasn’t been able to and he did it in Athens.
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The bottom line is this, Georgia still has too much talent to be taken lightly. Georgia is the team to beat in the division until another team comes along and proves otherwise. Georgia has dominated its division rivals for three seasons now and Florida should be more concerned with not being embarrassed by Tennessee this season. That is more likely to happen than Georgia dropping the division to them.