Georgia’s Oct. 31 matchup with Florida suddenly looks a lot less daunting.
A week ago, the Gators were riding high after blowing out Ole Miss in Week 4 and had started to look like one of Georgia’s toughest games on the schedule. That picture changed fast on Saturday, when Florida was embarrassed at Missouri in a 45-17 loss.
Florida had entered the week with the No. 2 scoring offense in the country and a fresh jump into the AP Poll top 10. The resume looked strong enough on paper: dominant wins over Florida Atlantic and Campbell, plus a solid road win at Auburn. Then came the 52-28 win over Ole Miss, which seemed to push the Gators into the contender conversation.
Instead, Missouri exposed them.
The Tigers are a top 25 team, so the loss itself isn’t the whole story. It was the way Florida got handled that stands out. One week after looking like a legitimate threat, the Gators came away looking like a team with real flaws.
That matters for Georgia. Florida is still capable of beating the Bulldogs, but the odds of that happening took a hit after Saturday. Georgia, meanwhile, is coming off its fifth straight win by at least 24 points.
There’s still plenty to learn before that rivalry matchup arrives in Atlanta. Georgia has to go to Alabama this weekend, and Florida has to head to Texas before facing UGA, so the Gators could take another loss before Oct.
- But right now, Georgia would probably be a comfortable favorite.
Missouri may even look like the tougher matchup at the moment.
The Tigers are 4-1 after their win over Florida, with their only loss coming at Mississippi State by seven points. Mississippi State is also 4-1 after losing to Alabama, which makes that defeat look respectable.
Georgia won’t see Missouri until Nov. 14, its third-to-last game of the season. By then, Missouri will already have gone through Ole Miss and Texas, so Georgia will get a clearer read on the Tigers before that game arrives. Even so, Missouri has already shown enough to suggest it won’t be an easy out, and its rout of Florida only reinforced that.
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Kirby Smart Seemed To Send A Message In Georgias Vanderbilt Win
Jared Curtis did not suit up in Vanderbilts recent meeting with Georgia after the quarterback, who had flipped his commitment from the Bulldogs to the Commodores last year, was injured. Georgia handled the game the way a team trying to stay in the thick of the national title race needed to, while Vanderbilt came away with its season outlook looking far less secure than the one in Athens.
Afterward, Curtis made his way toward Kirby Smart, setting up a moment that drew attention for what happened as much as what did not. Smarts body language suggested he was not eager to linger, and the interaction felt like the sort of understated sideline scene that can say plenty without anyone having to say much at all. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Left Vanderbilt With Two Concerns Alabama Will Test
Georgia left Nashville with a win and a cleaner record, but not a clean bill of health on the details that usually travel with them into bigger games. The Bulldogs beat Vanderbilt 38-14 to move to 5-0, and Carson Beck turned in another efficient day by completing 25 of 32 passes for 295 yards and three touchdowns. Even so, the outing had the kind of uneven stretches Georgia cannot ignore when the schedule sharpens, especially with the ground game not finding much rhythm.
The defense also had its lapses, most notably on third downs, and Alabama is the sort of opponent that tends to expose those cracks quickly. Georgia did settle in after halftime and looked more like itself down the stretch, but next weekend brings a far sterner test of whether those second-half corrections can carry over. For a team that has mostly handled business through September, the trip to face Alabama now feels less like a checkpoint and more like a revealing exam. [Read more 🡒]
Kirby Smart Is Already Pressing Georgia On One Concern Before Alabama
Vanderbilt kept things interesting for a half before Georgia pulled away for a 38-14 win, scoring the final 17 points to close it out. Clark Lea had reasons to point to some progress on the Commodores side, especially in protection and the run game, while Kirby Smart came away talking about the kind of things he likes to see from his own team this time of year: conditioning, execution and the steadier finish that can matter when the schedule tightens.
Smarts focus now turns quickly to Alabama, and it sounds like he is already sharpening one concern before that matchup arrives. Even after a comfortable win, Georgia is still looking to clean up areas that can become costly against a better opponent, and Smart did not hide that there is more work to do before the next test. [Read more 🡒]