For the sixth time in seven years, the Florida Gators had to watch the Georgia Bulldogs raise the final toast in Jacksonville. (Photo credit: University of Georgia Athletics Association)
For the briefest, faintest of moments, the Florida Gators had a glimmer of hope on Saturday afternoon.
Eugene Wilson caught a quick slant pass from Graham Mertz, navigated his way through the Georgia defense, extended the ball forward and broke the plane of the goal line to give Florida a 7-0 lead. Moments later, Georgia’s ensuing drive was halted with a third down stop by the Florida defense, forcing a field goal. After each team had the ball once, Florida held a 7-3 lead, and it seemed like maybe, just maybe, the Florida Gators were ready to give the sport’s top dogs a fight.
They were not. Instead, years of subpar recruiting took its toll and the Gators wilted.
Carson Beck threw for 315 yards, Daijun Edwards torched the Florida defense for 96 yards and two touchdowns and the Gator offense never seriously threatened again in a game Georgia would win 43-20. The Bulldogs have now won three straight and six of the last seven in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, furthering the reality that this is Georgia’s party and Florida is little more than an uninvited guest at it.
Georgia sure treated Florida on the field as such.
On Florida’s second drive, right tackle Damieon George whiffed on an attempt to block Jalon Walker, leading to a drive-killing strip-sack of Graham Mertz. Moments later, Georgia receiver Ladd McConkey put Florida corner Jason Marshall on skates, burning him to a crisp on a reversal of field en route to a touchdown that gave Georgia a lead it would not surrender. McConkey had found a seam in the Florida defense, but Marshall badly ran himself out of the play and never even got within two yards of McConkey, who cruised untouched into the end zone.
Things then went from bad to worse.
On the first play of the second quarter, down 10-7, Florida faced a fourth and one. The Gators did appear to be rooked by the spot, which made it fourth and a full two feet rather than fourth and inches or even a first down, but that was when Billy Napier took a gamble that turned a horrible situation into a catastrophic one. Napier elected to go for it, but instead of asking Mertz to fall forward for about 24 inches, he ordered a direct snap to Trevor Etienne six yards behind the line of scrimmage.
The play never had a prayer. Etienne was swarmed in the backfield on the Wildcat snap, and with only two route possibilities to throw to, plus the fact that Ricky Pearsall’s quasi-leak route developed too late and Kahleil Jackson never even turned his head around on those two routes, it was dead on arrival. Linebacker Smael Mondon caught Etienne after just two steps and stopped him dead in his tracks. Three plays later, Edwards broke free for a 20 yard touchdown run that made it 17-7 and proved to be the knockout punch.
Having just landed the knockout punch, Georgia’s defense then went for the kill shot. On the first play of Florida’s next drive, Mertz was sacked by Jamon Dumas-Johnson for a ten yard loss, throwing the Gators’ down-and-distance schedule out of whack. On the very next play, Mertz was buried again, only this time by Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins- and this time, the ball came out. Marvin Jones Jr. fell on it, setting Georgia’s offense up at the 11 and giving the Bulldogs an opportunity to end the game in the first half. And they did, with Edwards scoring from two yards out to make it 24-7.
And with the kill shot delivered, Georgia then twisted the knife around for good measure. Florida’s next drive went nowhere, which brought Jeremy Crawshaw onto the field to attempt a punt. Joenel Aguero had other ideas. He and four other Georgia players overwhelmed the hapless two-man Florida protect squad, which guaranteed someone a free run at the punter. It happened to be Aguero, who rejected the punt like Dekembe Mutumbo and touched off another Georgia celebration on an afternoon filled with them. The only “good” news for Florida was that the punt was blocked so hard that it landed out of the back of the end zone, limiting Georgia to just two points on a safety instead of seven and a touchdown.
But Georgia didn’t need the extra five points. The Bulldogs were more than content to trade scores in the second half, as they won this game before halftime.
In truth, the Bulldogs won this game well before Saturday.
Remember the names of the Georgia players mentioned so far in this article? Once upon a time, Florida had their chances at them all on the recruiting trail. The Gators missed on each and every one of them.
Five-star linebacker Smael Mondon, who blew up Etienne on the fourth and one play, was offered and lightly recruited by Christian Robinson under Dan Mullen. But he never even made it to campus. Mullen’s staff simply didn’t make Mondon a priority in the 2020 class, instead deciding that Derek Wingo and Brenton Cox Jr. would suffice at linebacker.
Five-star defensive back Joenel Aguero, who blocked the punt for a safety, was recruited heavily by Florida’s Patrick Toney and Corey Raymond. He took an official visit back in June, and to Florida’s credit, Napier’s staff did try hard to land him. But the Massachusetts DB chose Georgia over Florida in July and never wavered on that commitment.
High four-star, very-close-to-a-five-star linebacker Jalon Walker, who pulled off the first strip-sack of Mertz, was never even offered by Florida. Dan Mullen, who famously never liked to recruit to begin with, had completely shut down the operation by the time Walker’s stock began to rise and offers had begun piling in for the kid out of Salisbury, NC (about halfway between Greensboro, NC, and Charlotte). Georgia, Alabama, Notre Dame, Texas, LSU, Michigan, Oregon, Clemson, Oklahoma and Ohio State all thought enough of Walker to offer him a scholarship for the 2022 cycle, but not the Florida Gators.
Four-star linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson, who registered the first of back-to-back sacks on Mertz with the deficit still just at 17-7, was offered by Florida in the 2021 class and did make it to campus for Florida’s 2020 Junior Day. To be fair, Christian Robinson and Torrian Gray were recruiting him, and the COVID-19 pandemic did make things hard. But the virus placed the exact same restrictions on Georgia, too, and the Bulldogs ultimately landed the Baltimore prospect.
High four-star, very-close-to-a-five-star linebacker Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, who recorded the second of those back-to-back sacks on Mertz, was another member of the 2021 class that Dan Mullen and his staff simply did not bother to recruit. Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, FSU, Oregon, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, LSU, Penn State and Ole Miss all thought to recruit him out of Gaffney, SC (about halfway between Charlotte and Greenville, SC), but not Florida.
Five-star quarterback Carson Beck, who slit Florida’s defense apart with deep cut after deep cut on Saturday and finished with an easy 315 yards passing, liked Florida early in the 2020 recruiting cycle thanks to then-QB coach Brian Johnson. But Florida failed to show at the vigor in recruiting him that was necessary and never truly applied the full-court press on the Jacksonville native, resulting in him turning his attention to Georgia even though they had Stetson Bennett IV and JT Daniels already on the roster and ostensibly not going anywhere. He committed to Georgia late in 2019 and stuck.
And as for the Georgia offensive line that paved the way for Georgia to drop nearly 500 yards of total offense on Florida? From left to right, let’s take a look at what happened:
- High four-star, borderline five-star Earnest Greene, Class of 2022: Florida was beaten early, he never even made it to campus
- Solid four-star Micah Morris, Class of 2021: visited Florida twice, but Mullen was beaten out in the end by Kirby Smart and Georgia
- High four-star, borderline five-star Sedrick Van Pran, Class of 2021: Florida was a finalist but Mullen was beaten out in the end by Smart again
- High four-star, borderline five-star Tate Ratledge, Class of 2020: Florida was beaten out early, he never made it to campus
- Solid four-star Xavier Truss, Class of 2019: Florida was beaten out early, he never made it to campus
The truth of the matter is all Georgia had to do was not beat itself, and this game was theirs. Kirby Smart’s team simply had to not self-destruct, weather the early Florida punch, take the Gators’ hyped-up, adrenaline-ridden best shot and just wait for the massive talent disparity to play itself out. And that didn’t even take a full quarter to happen.
Now, though, Florida is left to lick its wounds and regroup. Just because the Florida Gators are clearly not on Georgia’s level yet doesn’t mean the season is over.
The Gators have no time to feel sorry for themselves: an Arkansas team that’s 2-6 presents the best chance Florida will have the rest of the year to to win. Let Georgia beat you twice and allow one loss to become two (like in 2018 or 2021) because the team has an emotional hangover after such a brutal loss will place Florida in a very precarious position. Losing to Arkansas would mean Florida has to either win one of two road games against top 20 teams or shock an FSU team that’s got the CFP on its mind just to make a bowl game.
Even beating Arkansas and then going 0-3 against those final three ranked teams would be bad. That would relegate Florida to 6-6, which is exactly where they sat a year ago, and very fair, very tough questions would arise about the trajectory of this program. Napier’s 2024 recruiting class is an elite one, featuring five-star QB DJ Lagway, but go 6-6 two seasons in a row and all that momentum the Gators had heading into the bye week after the win at South Carolina is gone. And that can’t happen.
But on the other hand, the sobering reality is that even if Florida goes 2-2 in its last four, or dare I say 3-1, the Florida Gators are still not where they need to be. Saturday wasn’t a mistake. If the two teams played again, Georgia would clobber Florida again. On that note, another, similar wakeup call against LSU is probably coming in two weeks, so it may not be a bad idea to prepare for that- because LSU, like Georgia, has outrecruited Florida for nearly a decade now.
And while help is on the way, and Billy Napier is addressing the Florida Gators’ trench needs with a monster defensive line class (though I’d argue he doesn’t truly address Florida’s offensive line needs if he doesn’t close with five-star Jordan Seaton), those fixes are for 2024 and beyond. Until then, it’s best to settle in, accept this team’s limitations, and enjoy any small successes they can earn the rest of the way.
