Leonard Floyd knows better than to look beyond his weekly opponent. After Ramik Wilson and other Georgia football players admitted to underestimating Florida, much to the chagrin of coach Mark Richt, the Bulldogs are focused on Charleston Southern.
“We aren’t taking them too lightly,” Floyd said of the Buccaneers. “We’re coming in like if we were playing Auburn again; We’re coming in with the same mindset. We know we can’t underestimate anybody else again.”
Georgia’s sights are set on an 8-3 FCS team who “probably should’ve won” against Vanderbilt on Oct. 11 according to offensive tackle John Theus, but ultimately lost the game 21-20. Charleston Southern is not likely to test the Bulldogs too much, but Damian Swann sees the contest perched comfortably between two tougher tasks on Georgia’s schedule (Auburn, which it won, and Georgia Tech next week) as a welcomed break from the grind that is facing ranked opponents.
“We look at it as an opportunity,” Swann said. “It’s an opportunity to get better. It’s an opportunity for guys to get some experience.”
Once Saturday’s game is over, the Bulldogs can look ahead to the immediate future. No, not their Nov. 29 meeting with the Yellow Jackets, but a game that kicks off not long after Charleston Southern heads out of Athens.
In order to reach the SEC Championship game, the Bulldogs need Missouri to lose at least one of its two games, one of which airs on ESPN at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The Georgia football players have no organized plans for a viewing party of Tigers’ trip to Knoxville to face the Volunteers, but they will “more than likely” be keeping an eye on the game as the night goes on, according to Swann.
“I think Tennessee has gotten better,” Swann said. “I think that young quarterback over there is really playing lights out. They go get a win in [South] Carolina and then they hang 50 on Kentucky. I think that offense has a lot of confidence right now, which is good for us. Hoping that they can at least be one of the two that’s going to pull it out for us.”
Swann said it is frustrating to an extent to have Georgia’s fate in the hands of a team it beat 34-0 on the road, but Missouri didn’t force the Bulldogs to drop games to South Carolina and Florida.
“At the same time it’s our fault,” he said. “We can’t blame anybody else. We have to own up to the things we didn’t do well and we’ve got to get them corrected so it doesn’t happen in the future.”
Saturday will give a Georgia squad that leads the SEC in scoring a chance to continue improving. Although his team is one he believes could “easily be undefeated right now,” Swann and the rest of the Bulldogs have no choice but to beat their next two opponents and hope another team gives them a nudge toward Atlanta.
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