The Good
Appreciate the moment
Halfway through this Frankenstein of the season, the Gators are sitting at 4-1 and in total control of the SEC East for the first time since 2016. However, unlike the two SEC title game appearances racked up during the McElwain era, this one feels different. In 2015 and 2016, the Dawgs were wrapping up the Richt era and beginning the Kirby Smart era.
After a mediocre debut in Athens, Smart reeled in the No. 3 recruiting class in 2017 (Rivals) and the No. 1 recruiting class in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Georgia was building the Death Star. Smart would be Saban’s heir apparent in the SEC.
The off-the-field hype was backed up by a classic Rose Bowl win and near loss to Bama in the 2017 College Football Playoff. Georgia lost a surefire playoff berth after another crushing loss to the Tide in the 2018 SEC title and would’ve had a spot in last year’s playoffs if they could’ve found a way to beat LSU.
Georgia’s rise under Smart coincided with a precipitous fall in Gainesville.
Despite the two SEC Championship Game berths in McElwain’s first two years, the performance on the field continued to get worse. The ex-Colorado State head coach had been brought in to give the Gators a boost on the offensive side of the ball, but the Gators fielded the 11th ranked offense in the conference during McElwain’s first SEC East title in 2015 and the 12th ranked offense during Mac’s second SEC East title in 2016. If it weren’t for a strong defense left over from Will Muschamp, those two seasons would’ve looked a lot more like the disaster we witnessed over the course of a 4-7 campaign in 2017.
The Gators had strayed from their identity of high-octane offense built under Spurrier and continued under Meyer. Muschamp tried to turn Florida into a replica of early Saban era Bama with a power running game complemented by top-tier defense. McElwain caught a bad break with the Will Grier situation, but he also could’ve handled the matter better on his end. Under his tutelage, high-profile recruit, Felepie Franks, did not seem to develop at the rate expected. Flailing attempts at the transfer portal yielded Notre Dame transfer Malik Zaire and Purdue grad transfer Austin Appleby.
Florida fans suffered through a full decade of an offensive funk.
Enter Dan Mullen with a mandate to rebuild the Florida football brand. Mullen spent 2018 building up Feleipe Franks’ confidence. He took steps under Mullen and developed into a leader as the season progressed. His confidence grew to a point where he stood up to the fans when he shushed The Swamp during a comeback win against Carolina in late 2018 en route to a double-digit debut for Mullen in the win column. Losing a starter would have been a devastating piece of news during the Muschamp or McElwain days, but when Franks went down for the season against Kentucky last year, Kyle Trask stepped in and led the Gators to an 11-win season. In just two seasons, Mullen resuscitated Florida football. The Gators once again looked like the Gators, but there was one thing missing…a title.
Kirby Smart and Georgia have been the only obstacle standing in the way of Mullen’s Gators over the last couple of years in the SEC East. Three years after Georgia laid a 42-7 smackdown on the banks of the St. Johns River in a game which made Florida seem at least a half-a-decade away from being remotely competitive again, Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators ran up 38 first half points on their way to a 44-28 victory that has once again restored order in the SEC East.
There will be plenty of time to breakdown what needs to improve going forward, but for now, stop and enjoy the moment.
Trask for Heisman
From my picks column heading into the weekend:
Forget establishing the run. Forget counting on the defense to play another strong game. Florida needs an Heisman worthy performance out of of their senior quarterback. Luckily, Trask is capable of delivering such a performance.
Trask got the job done. The senior quarterback out of Texas shook off a pick-six in the first half, which was caused by a poor route by a freshman wide receiver, and completed 30/43 passes for 474 yards and four touchdown passes.
As usual, Trask spread the ball around.
Running backs Malik Davis, Nay’Quan Wright, and Dameon Pierce were matchup nightmares in the passing game for a banged up Georgia defense. The three-head monster combined for 10 receptions for 212 yards receiving. These passes served as the de facto running game, but each back was effective enough on the ground when critical yardage was needed.
Tight end Kyle Pitts only made two catches before a shot to the head knocked him out, but he made the most out of both receptions. Kemore Gamble filled in nicely for Pitts with a touchdown catch and even came up with a one-handed snag on a pass intended for Wright.
Penn State transfer Justin Shorter flashed on a few occasions. Kadarius Toney had a quiet seven catches and Trevon Grimes’ touchdown grab seconds before halftime rivaled Pitts’ touchdown reception.
Not sleeping on Trevon Grimes (@Trevongrimes8)! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/cdZ4Ubs5rj
— Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_SB) November 7, 2020
Trask stood in stark contrast to UGA counterparts Bennet and Mathis. Through five games, he has nearly matched his 2019 total for touchdown passes with only three interceptions.
Give the man his Heisman already.
Honorable Non-SEC Mention:
Rutgers’ aggressive approach
Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano allowed the Scarlet Knights to play loose last night in Columbus and it paid off. The Buckeyes still won the game 49-21, but if you haven’t caught the full highlights, I highly encourage you to check out what Rutgers pulled off on Saturday night. Fake direct snaps, onside kick attempts, throwbacks on kickoff returns and punts (see below), and a screen to an eligible tackle which resulted in their first touchdown of the night.
Why don’t more teams play like this when they are clearly outmatched?
Take every risk in the book. If you’re going to likely lose anyway, might as well entertain the fans. Hopefully, Schiano carries this mentality forward as he continues to build a struggling Rutgers program up to Big Ten standards.
The Bad
Volunteers Offensive Second Half
Life was good in the first half.
The Volunteers finally relied on its ground game and let the defense do its job. RB Eric Gray ended the night with 31 carries for 123 yards and 1 TD. QB Jarrett Guarantano ran the ball five times for 31 yards and took a conservative approach in the passing game. This formula was by no means explosive, but it was effective enough and Tennessee led 13-0 going into the locker room.
In the third quarter, Guarantano exited with a head injury. Once Guarantano left the game the Vols turned to backup quarterbacks Brian Maurer and Harrison Bailey. Tennessee only managed to gain 25 total yards on the first five drives of the second half. The final two drives covered 95 yards, but each ended with interceptions.
Honorable Non-SEC Mention:
Hokies Ice Victory, Fall to Liberty
The Liberty Flames made a short trip in-state to Virginia Tech and pulled off a major upset in Blacksburg.
On the final drive of the game, with the score tied at 35, Liberty found itself in borderline field goal range facing a 4th & 6 at the VT 42-yard line with eight seconds remaining. Flames head coach Hugh Freeze trotted his field goal unit out for a 59-yard attempt.
Virginia Tech unleashed old-school Beamer ball on their Baptist brothers to the east and blocked the last second field goal attempt, picked up by the ball, and took it the distance for one of the most spectacular finishes to t a game that I’ve ever witnessed. As the Hokies began to wildly celebrate, everything came to a halt, and the official stepped up to the mic and announced that head coach Justin Fuente had called a timeout prior to the kick.
Fuente later said he was concerned the Hokies did not have the correct personnel on the field and admitted he regretted calling the timeout.
Liberty got the ball back on the VT 42-yard line with eight seconds left. This time, Freeze sent the offense on the field. For some reason, the Hokies defensive backs played far off the line and QB Malik Willis was able to sling a quick pass to the sideline to C.J. Yarbrough for an eight yard gain. The play only took three seconds and this time Flames kicker Alex Barbir converted on the field goal attempt to give Liberty a 38-35 victory.
The UGAly
Banged up defense not up to task
Kyle Trask would have been a tough enough assignment at full strength, but the half-injured Dawgs’ defense was torched on Saturday. The Gators racked up 571 total yards (474 passing) and after forcing an opening three-and-out, Georgia surrendered six scores over the next seven drives.
The key piece missing in action was Richard LeCounte, UGA’s ball-hawking All-American safety who tends to be an agent of chaos on the field. This season, he has had 26 tackles, one fumble recovery, and three interceptions through the team’s first five games.
Big Dawgs don’t get fed
Running back Zamir White kicked things off with a 75-yard touchdown run around the left side. The minds behind Georgia football were so impressed that they gave him six more carries the rest of the game.
The quarterback play was atrocious for UGA. Why did White end up with only seven carries and RB James Cook only end up with six touches on the ground?
WR Kearis Jackson, a burner who nearly took a kickoff return to the house in the first half, touched the ball all of three times on the day.
The UGA offense had no real plan of attack. They ran the ball 29 times and threw the ball 29 times. In fairness, they probably would’ve liked to run more, but after Florida went up 28-21 in the second quarter, Georgia played from behind for the rest of the day.
Creative solution needed for QB situation
Last week, I appeared on a Georgia Bulldogs podcast. I expected to encounter some good pregame banter, talk up the Gators, and take a few shots at Georgia along the way. Instead, most of the discussion focused on their own frustration surrounding Smart’s stubborn insistence on sticking with Bennett.
From what I gathered, J.T. Daniels’ recovery has not gone well. The USC transfer is still dealing with limited mobility as he works his way back into playing shape. Smart’s only real option outside of Stetson Bennett has been D’Wan Mathis.
Mathis started the season at Arkansas, but was pulled in favor of Bennett close to halftime. Smart must believe Bennett gave the team a better shot to win or he would not have continued to start him, however, why did Bennett’s start at Alabama not create any type of change within the Georgia offense?
Bama exposed Bennett. Kirby should have come into this game with a more courageous gameplan at the quarterback spot.
We saw enough of Mathis to understand why Bennett has held the job. He missed open reads, he was overcautious with his decisions to run at times, and when he did have an open receiver, he often overthrew his target. It just felt like Mathis was playing tight, however, he did piece together a good-looking touchdown drive at the end of the third quarter. Here is the play-by-play from that drive.
It wasn’t pretty, but the threat of Mathis running opened up a few good runs for the running backs and the struggling young quarterback completed a nice ball to WR Kearis Jackson. There are enough differences between Mathis and Bennett that Smart should consider a two-quarterback platoon.
The Dawgs need to do a better job of utilizing the running ability of both quarterbacks. Smart should pop in some tape of how Mullen worked with QB Nick Fitzgerald at Mississippi State and go from there. Mathis and Bennett are not great products on their own, but they each have enough good traits to build more productive play than we witnessed in Jacksonville this past weekend.
Don’t expect Smart to deviate from the current path though. Georgia finishes with Missouri, Mississippi State, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt. Now that the Bulldogs don’t have to worry about a rematch with the Tide, they can ride out the simple “we have better players than you” formula which will undoubtedly carry UGA to a 4-0 finish against lesser competition.
Smart should reconsider his uber-conservative approach going forward. It’s the main reason Dan Mullen will be waving from the Gators’ bus on the way to Atlanta in about a month from now.
