Georgia Football: Bulldogs vs Gators by the numbers
By Eric Taylor
With the SEC East title on the line, Georgia heads to Jacksonville to take on the Gators.
It is that time of year once again. Georgia football is packing up and heading to Jacksonville, Florida this week to take on longtime SEC East rival Florida. As has been the case in past years this game will most likely decide who represents the SEC East in the SEC Championship game in December. Every year the legacy of this game gets deeper and richer.
A lot of media pundits have Florida beating Georgia by ten or more points, even though Vegas opened the betting line favoring Georgia by 4.5 points. The series has been trending Georgia’s way as of late also. Georgia has won the last three in a row. Georgia football hasn’t always dominated in this series, but they lead the overall series. Here is how the series has gone over the years.
Overall Series Record: Georgia leads, 53-43-2
Record when both teams are ranked: Georgia leads, 11-10-1
Record when both teams are in the top 10: Georgia leads, 4-3-0
Record when only Georgia is ranked: Georgia leads, 12-3-0
Record when only Florida is ranked: Florida leads, 11-5-0
Longest winning streak by Georgia: 7 games
Longest winning streak by Florida: 7 games
Most points scored by Georgia: 75 (1942-11-07)
Most points scored by Florida: 52 (1994-10-29; 1995-10-28)
Largest margin of victory by Georgia: +75 (1942-11-07)
Largest margin of victory by Florida: +40 (1996-11-02)
Georgia football vs Florida in 2020
Georgia’s defense will be coming in a bit hobbled, but they are still one of the best units in the nation. Florida has the weapons on offense to test that theory though. However, those weapons do not have the pure speed of an offense like Alabama, so expect Georgia’s secondary to match up with Florida better than they did with Alabama.
Georgia will be without secondary leader Richard LeCoute, but Chris Smith and Lewis Cine have played plenty of snaps and have the ability to get the job done against Kyle Pitts and company. Tyrique Stevenson also has experience covering tight ends as this was his main job last year. Expect Stevenson to come in against Pitts in Georgia’s Nickel package if the other safeties struggle.
Georgia football still has one of the best defensive lines in college football without Julian Rochester. He will be missed, but Georgia is going up against one of the weakest offensive lines in the SEC this week. Florida is No. 9 in the SEC in pass blocking and No. 10 in run blocking. Georgia should be able to take full advantage of this.
Here are the numbers for Georgia’s and Florida’s defenses:
Rushing Defense (National rank):
Georgia – 80.0 yards per game (No. 5)
Florida – 133.0 yards per game (No. 41)
Pass Defense (National rank):
Georgia – 220.6 (No. 39)
Florida – 300.3 (No. 91)
Scoring Defense (National rank):
Georgia – 16.2 (No. 12)
Florida – 29.3 (No. 54)
Total Defense (National rank):
Georgia –300.6 (No. 13)
Florida – 433.3 (No. 67)
Georgia football’s offense has taken a lot of criticism this season. The run game that Georgia is famous for isn’t even ranked in the top 25, their passing game isn’t even ranked in the top 50, and they only score 29 points a game. They are one of the worst offensive units in the nation. A lot of that gets blamed on the quarterback position and Stetson Bennett.
Bennett has turned the ball over five times in the last two games and fumbled two more times which were recovered by the offense. Bennett’s play as of late has been erratic and he seems to have lost some of his swagger and confidence. The coaching staff will need to build up Bennett’s confidence before this matchup or a quarterback switch may need to happen to win.
There was good news for the offense this past week against Kentucky though. Once Georgia went run-heavy (74 percent of the offensive play calls) their ground game woke up. Zamir White had his first 100-yard game going off for 136 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries. Georgia has a total of 346 yards and averaged 6.1 yards per play, their best yards per play of the season.
Rushing Offense (National rank):
Georgia – 175.20 (No. 39)
Florida – 133.75 (No. 73)
Passing Offense (National rank):
Georgia – 228.8 (No. 60)
Florida – 342.8 (No. 7)
Scoring Offense (National rank):
Georgia – 29.2 (No. 55)
Florida – 42.0 (No. 10)
Total Offense (National rank):
Georgia – 404.0 (No. 51)
Florida – 476.5 (No. 15)
Overall Georgia football comes in with a much better defense and offensive line, but Florida has a very dynamic defense. This one could go down to the wire as many of these matchups have gone. The game pretty much comes down to Georgia getting its passing game off the ground and making sure the Kyle Trask to Kyle Pitts connection is kept in check.
While there are a lot of people expecting Georgia to lose this matchup, expect Third and Grantham to be a big reason Georgia pulls out the win. However, don’t forget about Florida’s weak offensive line. Georgia should be able to get after Trask early and often making his reads more and more difficult.
Florida has a lot of weapons on offense, but you can’t move the ball if you can’t connect with them. Put Trask on his back when Florida has the ball and convert third downs on offense to keep the ball out of Trask’s hands when on offense. This is how you beat Florida. This is how you win the SEC East for the fourth straight year.