JACKSONVILLE — If not now, when?
That’s the question being asked as Georgia and Florida prepare to renew their annual rivalry here on the St. Johns River on Saturday. The Bulldogs (5-2, 4-1) are favored, are in the midst of a five-game winning streak and are tied for first in the SEC’s Eastern Division. Meanwhile, the Gators (4-3, 2-3) have lost three consecutive under the watch of first-year coach Will Muschamp and will play with a gimpy quarterback, if he plays at all.
Yet the level of uneasiness in the Bulldog Nation is palpable. They’ve seen this movie before, and they don’t like the way it has turned out in the past. Meanwhile, that anxiety extends to the Georgia locker room.
“People get a little tight during Florida week, and that’s the way it’s always been,” said senior tight end Aron White, who is 0-3 when he has played in the game. “That’s fans, players, staff, coaches, everybody. Everybody just gets a little more serious during Florida week. There’s not as much joking around. That’s just across the board. That’s everybody.”
While Florida has been one of the nation’s more successful programs over the past two decades — and they’ve won 18 of the past 21 games against Georgia — there have been many times when the Bulldogs came in with the better team having the better the season. Yet more often than not, they found a way to lose.
Three times during Mark Richt’s tenure as Georgia’s head coach, the Bulldogs have played in the SEC championship game. Yet in all three of those seasons — 2002, 2003 and 2005 — they managed to lose this game. Overall, he’s 2-8 against the Gators.
“We know it’s a big game,” Richt said. “We know it’s big for the rivalry this year. Our fans always want to ask, ‘You gonna beat Florida? You gonna beat Florida?’ That’s the goal. But I always hope more than anything that when we get to that game it’s still very meaningful for the Eastern Division race, which it is right now. So that’s what we’re thrilled about. But we know we haven’t had a lot of success against them lately.”
Richt has employed every kind of strategy he could imagine to try to flip the series. He has brought in past players who had great success against the Gators, such as Herschel Walker and Bill Goldberg, and had them talk to the team. He has put the Bulldogs through light practices, and he’s had them endure heavy contact. He has allowed the team to celebrate excessively and let them wear black helmets.
Through it all he has yet to find the formula for sustained success.
“I think we are much better off focusing on the things that really, truly matter,” Richt said this week. “That is, what is your job, what is your assignment, what are you going to do if this happens and what are you going to do if that happens? When we get there, we don’t have any problems as far as emotions.”
It could be argued that last year was one such season when the Bulldogs may have had the edge. Like this season, the Gators were coming in on a three-game losing streak. Yet Georgia’s Aaron Murray threw three interceptions, and the Bulldogs came up short in overtime 34-31.
“A lot of people want to talk about, ‘oh, they’re in your head.’ I don’t think that,” said Murray, who grew up in Tampa and was heavily recruited by the Gators. “None of us knew [Georgia’s 3-18 mark] until they told us the other night. So as players, we don’t think that’s any kind of mental thing we need to overcome. All we know is we have to win these next three SEC games to give us a chance to get to Atlanta for the SEC championship game.”
The Bulldogs currently are tied with South Carolina for first place in the SEC East and could go a long way toward winning the division, while eliminating the Gators, with a win at EverBank Field. Meanwhile, the Gamecocks (6-1, 4-1), are at Tennessee on Saturday, the first in a gauntlet of games that includes Arkansas and Florida.
But first things first, and while the Gators have lost three consecutive, they came against No. 1 LSU, No. 2 Alabama and No. 24 Auburn.
“I think there is a perception that Georgia is on a roll and Florida is struggling,” Richt said. “But if you flip those schedules, I’m not sure it wouldn’t be a whole lot different story for us and for them as far as winning. They are a very talented team as always.”
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