It appears that Georgia will have right guard Tate Ratledge back for Saturday’s game against Florida.

The senior has missed the Bulldogs’ last four games and has not played since week three at Kentucky, where he suffered an ankle injury that required tightrope surgery.

“We're hopeful. I mean, we think he's going to be able to give us something,” head coach Kirby Smart said during Monday’s press conference. “He practiced some last week, took some reps, and did rehab over the weekend. Hopefully, he's ready to go. I mean, I know he wants to play in this game. It's really important to him.”

Should Ratledge return, Dylan Fairchild is expected to slide over to left guard.

The SEC announced that next week’s game at Ole Miss will kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET.

ABC will televise the game.

… Florida coach Billy Napier may have his detractors in Gainesville, but not in Kirby Smart:

“The three losses have come to three teams that are ranked in the top ten. At least I think they are, I don't even know. But they're really good teams and they played those teams well,” Smart said. “So, I have a lot of respect for Billy, he and I have worked together before. I think he's building a really good program down there. And he is a tremendous football coach.

… Smart said preparing to face Florida freshman quarterback DJ Lagway is not much different from Graham Mertz, out for the year with a torn ACL.

“He made several plays where he trusted the pocket and stepped up and made really good throws. Threw the deep ball really well, obviously, like last game against Kentucky. It's not so much the change,” Smart said. “Obviously, he has a running ability, but Graham is a good athlete, too. So, it's not a huge change for me, too, in terms of what they ask him to do. I think he's capable of making explosives.”

… Georgia’s seniors have a chance to finish 4-0 against Florida for the first time since 1983

“No, I think it has no bearing on Saturday,” Smart said. “I mean, each season is independent of the previous. We don't get caught up in things like that. We're trying to earn it each day.”

… Smart on the bye-week focus

“Yeah, I think we got to look at ourselves. I think we got a lot of work for our younger players,” Smart said. “I think we did a lot of targeted drill work, targeted things that we needed to work on specifically, offensively and defensively, situational football, that we really had got to do in the past couple of weeks, because it's been so fast.”

… Smart was asked to give his take on the development of Sam M’Pemba, Gabe Harris and Damon Wilson.

“Yeah, all three of those guys, they're similar in the fact they play the same position, they're different in their makeup, and kind of their strengths. Each one has gotten better.”

Of the three, Wilson and Harris have the biggest impact.

“I think Chidera's [Uzo Diribe] done a great job developing those guys, we've seen Damon increase his role this year from last year, and he's continuing to get better,” Smart said. “Gabe has given us a solid guy in some positions that we've struggled with. We've had some injuries at the position that Gabe's been asked to play.”

M’Pemba, meanwhile, is playing outside linebacker after playing inside linebacker as a high school recruit.

“Sam's continuing to develop. He probably had the furthest to go from a standpoint of, he'd been an offensive player some of his high school career and was really just starting to play more and more on defense,” Smart said. “But I'm pleased with all three of those guys.”

…Smart said his Bulldogs have yet to peak

“Yeah, I don't know, I don't know that we have peaked, I hope we haven't,” Smart said. “I think you're constantly trying to get better, and that's our pursuit of the best version of ourselves. We haven't reached that with this team, we haven't reached our best. We're trying to get better and ascend into every area and grow and create more depth.”