Note Worthy - Extra Cocktail Notes

This week is the Cocktail/Oar/River game or whatever they want to call it these days. Georgia is 5-5 all-time when they have the week off against Florida and 2-2 when both the Bulldogs and the Gators are off. Last week I mentioned many of the stats relevant to the Vanderbilt game, but this time I will focus more on the Florida game and when dealing with the Gators I am not going to take no jive.

Georgia first played Florida in 1904 (Florida says it was not “The University of Florida” back then). Charles Cox had four touchdowns in the game as Georgia won easily 52-0. Georgia finished 1-5 that season, and not counting that 'Florida' game, was outscored 68-16 in the remaining five games with six points being the highest score for the Dawgs. FireCharlesA.Barnard.com website (not a real site) must have been going crazy that season. Also Florida played Georgia Tech, Auburn and Alabama that season as well but does not claim those gameseither. Florida claims the first time they faced Georgia was in 1915. Georgia won that game 37-0.

According to Georgia, it has 50 wins compared to 42 losses and two ties. The 50 wins are the fourth most Georgia has against any opponent. Here are the top five and the Dawgs have fared in their last ten games against them.

I have always heard this has been a series of shifts, but I didn’t realize it was divided in four places instead of two. Check this out...

How have Georgia’s first year head coaches fared against Florida since Vince Dooley?

Georgia is just 3-9 when former Georgia players face Florida as Georgia head coach. Kid Woodruff won two games in 1926 and 1927, Johnny Griffith lost all three and Ray Goff went 1-6.

Do you know Georgia is 10-2 against Florida in seasons in which they won the SEC. The only two losses were in 2002 and 2005. The biggest win was in 1942 when the Dawgs won 75-0.

Strange fact: Georgia is 13-9 against Florida in years in which there was a Summer Olympics. The only reason I mentioned that is that I was thinking of the pass from Richard Appleby to Gene Washington for 80 yards on the reverse in 1975. Thank you to Larry Munson for the incredible call and to Patrick Garbin for putting the video together.

Obviously that wasn’t the only big play Georgia had against Florida. Buck Belue and Lindsay Scott might have another play as well. Here are the longest touchdown plays in that series for the Dawgs.

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The longest play by Georgia over Florida was on defense rather than offense. In 1959, Charley Britt (who also played quarterback at times) intercepted Gator Richard Allen and returned the ball 100 yards (school record) for the touchdown as the Bulldogs won 21-10.

In the last 20 seasons, Georgia is 6-14 against Florida. In the six wins the Dawgs averaged 1.7 turnovers per game and in their 14 losses they averaged 3.1 (including four or more in five of their last six losses).

In Georgia’s last six wins over Florida, it has allowed 105.7 yards rushing per game and 3.2 yards per attempt. In the last 14 losses the Dawgs have allowed 180.1 yards and 4.6 yards per attempt (including 279.3 in their last four losses). On the bright side, Georgia has allowed just 46 yards rushing per game versus its last two opponents, including only 1.6 yards per attempt.

In 2014, Nick Chubb had 156 yards rushing on 21 attempts and a touchdown. He also had a touchdown reception off a deflection in the game. It is only one of two games he had a touchdown rush and touchdown reception in the same game (Southern in 2015 was the other). If Chubb matches that total he will be in fourth place all-time on Georgia’s rushing list. He needs 120 for an even 3,000 yards rushing and he needs 137 to tie Lars Tate for fourth place on that list.

I remember back in 1997 when Robert Edwards had four touchdown rushes but the play I recall the most was Olandis Gary fighting for that last touchdown and the 37-17 win (a game in which Georgia was 20 point underdogs).

In that same 1997 game, Kirby Smart had two interceptions and almost a third. He had 22 tackles and two interceptions in his career as a player against the Gators. His two interceptions were part of the 13 he had in his career. He is tied for fifth all-time in Georgia history for career interceptions. One of the players he is tied with is Scott Woerner. Woerner along with Marcus Stroud (my favorite Sports Illustrated cover) will be inducted into the Georgia/Florida Hall of Fame.