Georgia beat Florida years before the teams took the field on Saturday

Georgia football's win over Florida on Saturday was one of the best victories of the season. Sure Georgia has beaten a few teams better than Florida already this year, but beating a rival in dramatic fashion will always feel like one of the biggest wins of the season.

But Georgia didn't just win this game on Saturday. The work Kirby Smart and his staff put in on the recruiting trail years ago is what led to this victory, because without earning a key commitment over two years ago Georgia may have never won this game.

Georgia's success on the recruiting trail beat Florida long before the game on Saturday

One of the stars from Georgia's win over Florida was running back Chauncey Bowens. He finished the night with nine carries that he turned into a whopping 70 yards. He also found the end zone once during the fourth quarter which just so happened to turn into the game-winning touchdown.

This feels like a pretty normal way to win a football game, but it is very significant that it was Bowens who scored the game-winning touchdown. Bowens is from the state of Florida and was once committed to the Gators, but in June of 2023 he flipped his commitment to Georgia one day after he took an official visit to Athens.

This made this matchup personal for Bowens, and he made sure to remind Florida how big of a mistake they made by letting him go two years ago during his postgame press conference.

So while everyone was focused on the game being played on the field, Smart actually won this game two years ago when he flipped Bowens from Florida. Sure he didn't know it at the time, but that commitment was the first domino to fall that led to Bowens putting the finishing touches on Georgia's fifth straight victory over Florida.