This Saturday will be the 100th meeting between Georgia and Florida on the gridiron. The Bulldogs hold a 53-44-2 advantage in the series. Everyone knows about Jacksonville, and even Athens and Gainesville—but this rivalry has also been played in Macon, Savannah, and Tampa. The Dawgs defense has been the strength of this season’s team.
Did you know Georgia shut out Florida in each of the first five meetings and 15 times overall? On the flipside, the Gators have scored in an NCAA record 417 straight games. Can this team stop the streak? Get your cocktails ready.
Kirby Smart is one of the few Dawgs who have played and also been a head coach against the Gators. He was just 1-3 as a player, but in the one win, he picked off two big passes. As a head coach, he's currently 3-2.
Georgia has allowed just 46 points through its first seven games. The 1971 team also allowed 46 points through seven games. The team record for fewest points allowed through the first seven games was by the 1927 team, which allowed a total of 13 points. That 1927 team finished 9-1 and was crowned national champions by the Boand and the Poling polls.
Speaking of 13, that's still the most points the Bulldogs have allowed this season. The last time Georgia allowed 13 or fewer points in each of its first seven games was in 1942. The Bulldogs were 11-1 that season and were crowned national champions by six different polls: DeVold, Houlgate, Litkenhous, Williamson, Polong, and Berryman. Check out this comparison of the Dawgs’ first seven games this season to the first seven games of 1942—plus that magical eighth game against the Gators.
The 1942 season was also the only time Georgia was the No. 1 team when it faced Florida.
Nothing has changed in terms of rankings, as the Bulldogs lead the FBS in three very important categories.
Georgia leads the SEC in sacks with 25 and 13 different Dawgs have at least one, led by Adam Anderson’s four and a half.
Channing Tindall leads the team in tackles this season with 33. What is crazy is that the SEC’s leading tackler is Damone Clark of LSU with 99 (three times as much as Tindal). Eight different Bulldogs have between 20 and 33 tackles on the season.
One player who doesn't rack up monster stats, but is having a monster season, is Jordan Davis. Teammate Nakobe Dean thinks he should get some hardware.
The Heisman generally goes to offensive players, especially quarterbacks and running backs. Five times, a Georgia defensive player has been in the top ten in the voting, and surprisingly none involve two-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year David Pollack or Outland Trophy winner Bill Stanfill.
Crazy that Spurrier won in Patton's season and Mayfield won in Smith's, since both Bulldogs destroyed them during that season.
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Offensively the Bulldogs are doing much better. After scoring just 10 in the season opener, the team has scored at least 30 points in each of the next six games. In both 2019 and 2020, Georgia scored 30 or more points five times in each season. The last time the Dawgs scored 30 or more points six games in a row in the same season was 2018, and the last time they had seven 30-point games in a row was in 2014.
Georgia and South Carolina are the only two SEC schools with two quarterbacks throwing at least 500 yards this season. Four times since 2000, the Bulldogs have had two different quarterbacks with at least 500 yards passing.
Brock Bowers is the leading receiver for the Dawgs. The tight end has three separate games in which he's had two touchdown receptions. Twice this season he's posted 100-yard receiving games. His 25 receptions are second in the SEC among true freshmen, and only trails LSU’s Jack Bech, who has played one extra game.
With his two touchdown catches against Kentucky, Bowers is tied for the most touchdown receptions by a Bulldog tight end in a single season. Here are the top eight Dawgs in this category.
According to the Georgia media guide, the first season in which a Bulldog was labeled as a tight end was in 1968.
Bowers is just one of Georgia’s freshmen who are catching touchdown passes. Ladd McConkey and Adonai Mitchell have two each, and Justin Robinson and Arian Smith (still listed as a freshman) each have one. The Bulldogs’ freshmen have 12 touchdown receptions this season compared to the rest of the teams in the SEC with a combined total of 15.
Georgia's 12 freshmen TD receptions are tied for the most in the nation. They are tied with Liberty, and both are one ahead of Akron.
In terms of running the ball, Zamir White leads the team with seven touchdown rushes. He has seven while the rest of the team has seven as well. White has 21 in his career, which is the second most behind former Dawg Nick Chubb (23) for the most touchdown rushes under Smart.
With Kendall Milton being sidelined for a while, splitting the carries may look a little different. Here is how the Dawgs look in that category as of now.
The Dawgs had their streak of consecutive extra points end at an NCAA record 363. The last extra point missed by Georgia prior to the Kentucky game was in 2014 against Vanderbilt. In the dates in which Georgia did not miss, here's how many the SEC teams missed in that same stretch.
Finally, congrats go out to some former Bulldogs. First, to Thomas Davis and Jon Stinchcomb, who will be inducted into the Georgia/Florida Hall of Fame this Friday. Second, congrats to Matthew Stafford, who threw for his 300th career touchdown pass in the NFL. He became just the 13th quarterback into that club. Georgia is the only school with two players with 300 or more career touchdown passes (Stafford (301) and Fran Tarkenton (342)).
