Parity, schmarity: Georgia does what it does and keeps on rolling

Two weeks ago, parity knocked on Georgia’s door.

It appears it had the wrong address.

Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs will someday be absorbed by the pack, their lead position in the SEC swallowed up by Florida, South Carolina and their ilk as the transfer portal and name, image and likeness payments continue to level the playing field.

The forces of parity have already created a traffic jam in the middle of the SEC standings.

But Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium was not the day for the Bulldogs to be knocked down a peg.

The storied Georgia-Florida series broke from its past Saturday, setting up shop inside Georgia state borders for just the second time since 1932. The product on the field, though, looked a lot like what Smart has pumped out of Athens for most of the past decade.

A vaunted running back bottled up. An opponent made to pay for its mistakes. A Bulldogs team that responded to a rare loss with resolve. A beat down that voided the game of drama before the halftime show.

No. 3 Georgia 27, No. 17 Florida 8, Parity -4.

The return of the Gators, at least in this series, will have to wait at least another 12 months.

“I think they’re a really good football team, and a lot of respect to them,” said Florida coach Jon Sumrall, the fifth Gators boss (including one interim) to lose to Smart. “They didn’t need our help (Saturday), but we gave it to them, too.”

This was the stat of the game: Georgia outrushed Florida 217-48. Further, Gators running back Jadan Baugh, arguably the best running back in the SEC, was held to 38 rushing yards.

Defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann won the matchup with Florida offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, the Parkview High graduate who made his return to Atlanta after three highly successful seasons at Georgia Tech (which followed three seasons on the UGA staff as a quality control assistant).

“I thought Schumann had a good game plan, a very disruptive game plan,” Smart said. “The defensive staff did a tremendous job trying to keep things simple because Buster causes a lot of confusion.”

A slew of Florida mistakes accelerated the Gators’ demise.

On his team’s first possession, Florida quarterback Aaron Philo, the Georgia Tech transfer from Prince Avenue Christian, temporarily took leave of his senses and threw an exceptionally ill-advised interception that gave the Bulldogs the ball at the Florida 41-yard line.

The Gators’ defense then appeared to produce a three-and-out but a roughing the kicker penalty on Drew Miller’s punt extended the possession and enabled the Bulldogs to get into the end zone for a 7-0 lead.

Philo threw another interception (not his fault, it appeared) that led to a Georgia field goal and a 10-0 lead with 8:55 left in the second quarter. It precipitated his being pulled in favor of backup Tramell Jones Jr. and began to dim the lights on Florida’s upset hopes.

Of Georgia’s 27 points, 17 were scored off turnovers.

“Really disappointed, hate it for our football team,” Sumrall said. “I apologize to our fans. It wasn’t what the Florida Gator standard is.”

Unfortunately for Florida, Smart left the field believing his team wasn’t at its best, either.

“We can play a lot better offensively,” he said. “We did what we had to do. We avoided for the turnovers for the most part and we got turnovers. The Dawgs didn’t beat the Dawgs (Saturday), and the Gators helped us with some of the turnovers they had.’

In light of Saturday’s results, the Bulldogs’ 27-24 loss to Auburn two Saturdays ago at Sanford Stadium looked even more like what it did then – an outlier outcome influenced heavily by Georgia playing well below its standards.

This past Tuesday, coming out of an open date, Smart was asked about what he wanted to see from his team after the loss. He said he tries to focus his team on the process over results.

“Which is like, ‘OK, what can we do better?’” he asked. “How do we not turn the ball over? How do we stay away from dumb penalties and how do we tackle better? How do we get more turnovers so that our turnovers are less glaring?’”

Georgia won by dominating in turnovers, avoiding costly penalties and suffocating the Florida offense – just about exactly what Smart had called for.

Sumrall and his staff have studied how Georgia has recruited and developed its roster because he wants to win the SEC titles that the Bulldogs have won by the fistful.