Un-Caged

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Lawrence Cager said there was no way he was going to miss Saturday’s game against Florida.

“If I had a broken leg, I was going to play,” Cager said after his career-best performance to help the Bulldogs beat Florida 24-17 Saturday at TIAA Bank Field.

It was Cager’s 52-yard touchdown catch from Jake Fromm, with 10:01 left to play, that not only gave Georgia a 12-point lead, but gave him seven catches for 132 yards, both career highs.

Fromm and Cager then connected on a two-point conversion to make it 24-10.

Cager, who was knocked out of the first half of Georgia’s loss to South Carolina with shoulder and rib injuries, was initially predicted to miss more than just the one game against Kentucky.

But with an extra week to heal, Cager began feeling better than he expected he would—so good in fact, that earlier this week he put out a tweet to predict his ultimate return.

However, nobody could have predicted the kind of game he’d have against the Gators when the Bulldogs and Fromm needed him the most.

Of Cagers’ seven catches, three went for first-half third downs as Georgia converted an impressive 12 of 18 for the game.

“We were 12 of 18 on third down. That’s very, very hard to do,” Cager said. “As a team, we just made plays whenever they came to us, and that’s all you can ask for as an offense.”

Head coach Kirby Smart said there was never any doubt Cager would be able to go.

"I never doubted Lawrence would play. I didn't know what role that would take on. I didn't know how many hits he could take, how many blocks he'd be able to make,” Smart said. “He's a warrior and a competitor, and I never doubted that. But I didn't know how big the role was. I know he played big."

Fromm was the biggest beneficiary.

The Bulldog junior enjoyed an outstanding afternoon, completing 20 of 30 passes for 279 yards and two touchdowns, spreading the ball around to eight different players.

According to Cager, he and Georgia’s other wideouts came into Saturday’s game with a bit of a chip on their collective shoulder.

“A lot of people say our receivers have no game-changers, no play-makers,” Cager said. “I heard it during the South Carolina broadcast, and they were saying nobody can get open. To me that’s like, c’mon man. But I’ve learned to shut that out.”

When asked about his 52-yard touchdown catch, Cager couldn't help but smile. The former Miami player was so wide open that he could have walked into the end zone, and almost did.

"Jake throws it my way, I try to make the best play I can for him. It was a play call that Coach Coley had been trying to call,” Coley said. “We called it once at Vanderbilt, but he’s been trying to work it back in. It was just the right play call against the right coverage. Credit to Coach Coley.”

Give plenty of credit to Cager, too. Smart did.

"He was determined from the start. He was on the side running, he was doing things, he was wearing Kevlar pads. He did everything he could. He rehabbed extra. He couldn't do any more than he already did to get out there and play. His biggest concern for me was conditioning. He had to come out on a couple of plays. There were some plays we would have liked to have gotten to him that he wasn't able to sustain,” Smart said. “It wasn't injury; it was conditioning. You can condition on a bike and swim and run, until you get out there and run routes; it's different. He was able to do a little bit of that, but probably not to the level he needed to. I’m just proud of him."