How Florida Fared in Its Key Matchups Against Georgia
Photo: Florida defensive lineman Caleb Banks; Credit: Alex Shepherd
Make that three consecutive losses by the Florida Gators to the Georgia Bulldogs.
A strong start and early touchdown lead disappeared as Florida lost to Georgia in Week 9, 43-20. The Bulldogs scored 36 straight points before Florida ended its two-quarter scoring drought early in the fourth quarter.
Prior to the game, All Gators broke down three key matchups that were likely to determine the outcome of Florida's matchup against Georgia. Here's how those battles played out.
The Trenches
UF head coach Billy Napier and starting left tackle Austin Barber spoke last week about how the trenches would dictate this matchup. They weren't wrong, but they weren't on the positive end of that matchup, either.
Georgia dominated the trenches on both sides of the ball. As a team, the Bulldogs rushed for 171 and three touchdowns while averaging 4.5 yards a carry. Daijun Edwards rushed for 95 yards with a 5.9-yard average and two of those scores.
In the passing game, Florida sacked Carson Beck zero times, which led to a 315-yard and two-touchdown performance.
"Certainly couldn't get him off his spot much, I thought they protected him well. And certainly there were guys open, even in man coverage at times," Napier said about Beck's performance. "That's what I'm kind of getting at here, relative to we can help as a staff conceptually. We can do more. And, ultimately, players had opportunities today."
For Florida, it felt like the opposite. Graham Mertz was under pressure most of the game, which led to four sacks and two fumbles, one of which was recovered by Georgia and led to a touchdown.
"I think anytime we got behind the sticks, second-and-10, third-and-long, that's where their game-plan-specific," Mertz said. "They're a talented defense. You just can't put yourself in that situation."
Meanwhile, Georgia stifled the Florida running game while only allowing 109 yards on 25 carries, granted UF had to rely on the pass due to the deficit. Trevor Etienne was held to 42 yards on seven attempts, and while Montrell Johnson had 82 of his own, 48 of those came on one rush late in the third quarter.
As the saying goes, it starts up front, and Georgia's control of the line of scrimmage allowed the Dawgs to control the game.
"Bowerless" Offense vs. UF's Defense
Brock Bowers' injury led many around the country, including former UF head coach Dan Mullen, to believe that Florida could upset the nation's No. 1 team.
But, no Bowers, no problem for the Bulldogs. Florida's defense struggled mightily against Georgia and gave up over 40 points in the rivalry for the second year in a row.
With plenty of time to throw, Beck consistently targeted Ladd McConkey and Dominic Lovett while on his way to a 300-yard, two-touchdown performance. Beck completed nine passes of at least 15 yards, five of which went to McConkey or Lovett.
McConkey set a new career-high in receptions in a game (six) while tying his career-high in yards (135) and scoring his first touchdown of the season. He also caught passes of 41 yards and 54 yards.
"Some plays he did get the better of me. But at the end of the day, he is a great player. I'm a great player. He's going to make plays. And that's pretty much it," UF corner Jason Marshall Jr said of McConkey.
Meanwhile, Lovett caught four passes for 83 yards including a game-high 55-yarder.
This matchup proved that Georgia remains the dominant force in college football, capable of moving the ball at will even without its best offensive player, and that Florida needs to make significant improvement across the board before this rivalry can become competitive again.
Coaching and Culture
Although Florida has displayed some improvement in these categories this season compared to 2022, Saturday's game showed that the talent gap between these teams, on and off the field, is as wide if not wider than the St. Johns River.
Georgia simply dominated in the trenches, in space, on special teams and on the headsets.
One offensive play call of Napier's stands out for the worse, in particular.
Facing fourth and less than one yard from its own 34-yard line, Florida elected to go for it while down 10-7. After lining up in the shotgun, Mertz shifted under center, and Kingsley Eguakun snapped it through Mertz's legs directly to Etienne, who ran left in an attempt to throw the ball to Ricky Pearsall.
Georgia read it perfectly. Etienne was tackled for a loss with quickness by linebacker Smael Mondon, and the Bulldogs scored three plays later to extend their lead to 10 points.
"It definitely shifted the momentum," Mertz said about the play's result, although he defended the call by his head coach "I trust Coach Napier and his play call with all my heart. Anytime he calls a play it's my job to go out there and execute it."
Napier explained he had "conviction about the call" and that the result came down to execution.
"I mean, you can go a lot of different directions. We can sit here — that's one of many plays today that probably we'd like to have back. But it's not necessarily about the plays at times. It's about the players. It's about the execution," Napier said. "We can certainly call better plays at times today, but ultimately it comes down to the execution of the play."
Now, to give Napier credit, play-calling wasn't the entire reason Florida lost the game. In fact, the opening script even kept Florida in the game early. The Gators' first drive was their best, a seven-play, 64-yard drive that ended in Eugene Wilson III's 27-yard touchdown catch.
Moving on from the "X's and O's" and to the "Johnny's and Joe's," Saturday's game showed Georgia is still much more talented than Florida, in large part due to the continuity, dominant recruiting and player development under head coach Kirby Smart since his Dec. 2015 hiring.
Napier understands Florida has work to do to chase Georgia down and indicated the need to have players in his system for multiple years in order to do so.
"I think this is the eighth year for Kirby. And, look, we've got work to do to chase them down. There's no denying that," Napier said. "And we're in the middle of that process, in the middle of that journey."
Florida currently has the No. 3 recruiting class in the country, showcasing a major improvement in the player-acquisition department from the previous regime. Smart even quipped at UF's recruiting under Mullen in his post-game press conference.
Florida has made tremendous strides in the off-field culture of the program in two years under Napier, according to its head coach. The next step is to translate those strides onto the field.
Keys Moving Forward
For Florida, the schedule doesn't get much easier sans Week 10. After next Saturday's matchup against six-loss Arkansas, Florida travels to No. 13 LSU and No. 14 Missouri before concluding the regular season against No. 4 Florida State.
Sitting at five wins, Florida's best opportunity to obtain bowl eligibility is a win over the Razorbacks next week, where the Gators are a 6.5-point favorite in the opening lines.
From there, the goal must be to stay competitive.
By this point, Florida knows who its contributors are for this season. There are no more surprises. It will continue to rely on Mertz, Pearsall and Wilson in the passing game while focusing on Etienne and Johnson in the rushing game.
That being said, there needs to be significant improvement by the offensive line from now on. There is the benefit that the Gators won't play a defensive front as formidable at Georgia again, but with three top-15 teams left on the schedule, trouble could brew should better play not prevail from the unit.
Defensively, it's about getting back to basics. Princely Umanmielen had a strong game in run defense off the edge, but outside of that, Florida's defense was outmatched in every facet.
And it won't get any easier, especially with the quarterbacks left on the schedule. There's still KJ Jefferson, Jayden Daniels, Brady Cook and Jordan Travis left to face, and plenty of weapons on most of their offenses.
However, there's a chance for a bounce-back performance next week.
Arkansas has the lowest-ranked offense in the SEC in yards and the second-lowest in points per game. They also give up the second-most yards and points a game in the SEC.
Bowl eligibility is still very much on the table, especially with the Razorbacks coming to The Swamp next week.
"I'll tell you right now, it's not going to snowball," Mertz said about Florida's season post-Georgia game. "They're a great team. They got after us today. We made a few mistakes.
"But we've got a young team and I'm confident in our leaders to see the bigger picture. We've seen that all year. We know what this team has. And we know that our best is still out there. So there will be no snowball effect from this, I can guarantee you that."
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