The week leading up to a rivalry game frequently turns out to be an excellent opportunity to hear players publicly share thoughts that get passed around in their own locker rooms. It’s totally normal, if not encouraged, for players to talk amongst each other about why they’re going to win a given game- even when the other team is heavily favored to win that game.
When these thoughts are shared publicly, they become trash talk. That’s exactly what this team has done- although doing so is perhaps not in its best interest.
The flame was ignited on Monday when defensive back Chauncey Gardner dismissed Georgia QB Jake Fromm as a threat, boasting, “He’s throwing simple slant passes. Anybody can throw a slant. If he can beat us with his arm, whoopty do.”
And then wide receiver Josh Hammond- who may not even play Saturday with a back injury- tossed gasoline onto the fire by simply saying, “Georgia isn’t a team we lose to. They can’t beat Florida.”
For teams stockpiled with talent and the proven ability to back it up, this would be fine. For a Florida team that comes into this year’s tilt against Georgia at 3-3, a heavy underdog and in serious danger of missing a bowl game, it comes off as decidedly less smart to do so.
I have no problem with guys saying whatever they want during the course of a game week as long as it’s backed up on the field. The thing is, Florida hasn’t done that recently. Quincy Wilson’s famous “duck pulling truck” guarantee to beat Tennessee last year wound up backfiring as the Vols broke an eleven year losing streak to the Gators. Mark Thompson’s decree that the Gators were going to “beat the brakes off of Michigan” didn’t work out too well, either. And now we have a de facto guarantee that one of the worst Florida teams since the ignominious 0-10-1 team of 1979 is going to beat the third ranked team in the country.
On paper, Georgia appears ready to absolutely sledgehammer Florida this weekend. The Bulldogs back the third best defense in the nation (behind only Alabama and Washington) with a steady, two headed running game and one of the nation’s most efficient passers in Fromm. Florida, for its part, has the nation’s 103rd ranked total offense, including a paltry 182 pass yards per game and an even more miserable 20.1 points a game.
But I’ll stop there. Georgia hasn’t beaten Florida yet, and while most objective measures indicate that they will, it’s worth pointing out that Florida has pulled off some truly unbelievable upsets over the Dawgs in recent memory. The Gators had no business beating Georgia in 1992, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2014, yet they beat them in each of those years. So I’m not going to walk around acting like Florida lost before the game kicks off.
What I will say is this: Mr. Hammond and Mr. Gardner, you now have to back up that trash talk. If you don’t, you will find yourselves on the receiving end of a relentless salvo of ridicule from fans of both teams (see Nifae Lealao). If you do, you’ll join Shannon Snell on the list of Gators who prophesized that Florida would beat a heavily favored Georgia team.
I really hope it’s the latter.