College Football
Gus Bus Leaves
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Gus Malzahn is resigning after four seasons as the head coach at UCF.
He will become the offensive coordinator at Florida State University, multiple sources with knowledge of the hiring have confirmed.
Malzahn, 59, went 28-24 with the Knights. After two nine-win seasons in the AAC, UCF fell to 10-15 in its first two years in the Big 12.
UCF finished 4-8 in 2024, ending the season with a 28-14 loss at home to Utah.
Malzahn and Florida State coach Mike Norvell have known each other for almost 20 years. Malzahn was the offensive coordinator at Tulsa when he heard about Norvell through a friend.
Malzahn hired Norvell (then a graduate assistant at Central Arkansas) as a GA with the Golden Hurricanes before the 2007 season. Norvell rose the ranks after Malzahn left to become an assistant at Auburn.
Malzahn will be taking over a Florida State offense that heads into its season-finale against Florida, and they are ranked 131st nationally in both yards per game and points per game.
Malzahn is 105-62 in 13 seasons as an FBS head coach with one season at Arkansas State and eight at Auburn.
The Arkansas native went 68-35 at Auburn, with a BCS championship game appearance in 2013, his first season as head coach.
He never had a losing record there and went 3-5 against Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide teams in the Iron Bowl, but he was let go after the 2020 season, with the school paying a then-record $21.5 million buyout to get rid of him.
Malzahn was also a successful offensive coordinator in the SEC, first at Arkansas and then at Auburn, helping Cam Newton and the Tigers win a national title in 2010.
UCF athletic director Terry Mohajir rushed in as soon after Malzahn was let go by Auburn, a splashy move to replace Josh Heupel after he left for Tennessee.
Malzahn seemed invigorated by the new challenge. He bought into the branding and underlying idea that UCF was the future of college football as a growing program in the center of one of the nation’s biggest football states.
Malzahn’s 2024 recruiting class was the best in program history, finishing 39th in the 247Sports Composite.
His staff fended off one of Florida to sign defensive lineman John Walker, the nation’s No. 95 overall prospect and the top recruit in program history.
Even during two seasons in the AAC, UCF failed to meet the elevated expectations of a program that went to back-to-back New Year’s Six Bowls in 2017 and 2018 under Scott Frost and Heupel.
The Knights went 18-9 his first two seasons, losing the American title game in 2021 before beating Florida in the Gasparilla Bowl.
All three former AAC schools, including Houston and Cincinnati, have struggled to win since entering the Big 12.
UCF had the best first season by reaching a bowl game. But the Knights had one of the season’s biggest collapses when they blew a 28-point second-half lead to Baylor in their first Big 12 home game.
Year 2 was expected to bring solid results with Arkansas transfer KJ Jefferson, a promising match for Gus’s offense.
Instead, it brought a quarterback carousel ,a midseason firing of Defensive Coordinator Ted Roof, Malzahn handing off play-calling to offensive coordinator Tim Harris, and several close losses that could have flipped the season.
UCF issued the following statement: “We would like to thank coach Malzahn for his contributions to our football program over the past four seasons, including our transition into the Big 12 Conference. We appreciate his professionalism and dedication to our student-athletes throughout his tenure at UCF and wish he and his wife, Kristi, the very best in their future endeavors.”
Malzahn had three years left on a contract that would have paid him about $5.5 million annually.
From The Jump
By: Charlie Moon
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I’m not crazy, but…..Pat McAfee (yes, the same one permeating ESPN now) and long-time sports radio legend Colin Cowherd, had a major role in the country in introducing college football in the South, as the dominating national force.
Let me reset it for you. An undefeated, #2-ranked West Virginia was hosting long-time NFL coach Dave Wannstedt’s 4-7 Pittsburgh Panthers. The Mountaineers were 28.5-point favorites. WVU’s Pat McAfee missed not one, but two field goals.
To be fair, it was under 30 degrees and very windy. Pitt ran the ball out of the back of their own end zone as time expired and won 13-9.
My brother, Chad and our friends were going crazy. We called our parents, who were at some loud party in Athens. Why? Because the Dawgs, ranked #3, were going be in the BCS Championship game!
Then….they weren’t. Why? Long story short, the Dawgs were jumped by Florida, pitted against the Buckeyes on January 8, 2007.
Some can argue it began way before that. But that was the defining moment when a 7-point favored mighty Ohio St was supposed to show the country the Big Ten ruled the country.
But then SEC power and speed was on display and the country got to see just what pundit Colin Cowherd had been saying for a decade on his then ESPN radio show.
He had been saying for a decade that the SEC was already better than everyone, by a mile – and it would start showing soon. Most folks just shewed him off like they do now. But the guy knows his stuff.
One particular show hinged on one aspect. To most football purists, it was the craziest thing they’d ever heard.
It made perfect sense to me, though. He was talking about how the 90s saw the birth of 7-on-7 off-season football tournaments, similar to what happened with AAU basketball, and what we now deem “travel ball.”
Football showcase camps were popping up nationwide, and where were most of those camps? Yep, you guessed it.
The South. After all, why would a kid want to go to a March showcase event in lovely, icy St. Paul, Minnesota? So…. more kids from all regions, were coming down South.
His next point had nothing to do with football, but it rang clear. He talked about more kids visiting colleges down South, during these camps, and what did they see?
I can almost remember his exact words, but for emphasis, let’s quote it anyway.
“Imagine a kid from Syracuse, New York coming down south and visiting a college campus in sunny Florida. What do you think he saw? Yep, the college co-eds. And what do you think he thought? Do I want to stay in cold Syracuse, or go where the campuses are filled with sun and gorgeous co-eds?”
I get it, there are many reasons why college football in the South has been great for so long, well before 2007. But Cowherd’s argument was nearly a decade ahead of its time. College football in the South had been better for a long time, but it hadn’t yet dominated on a national scale.
In that 2007 BCS Championship Game, it was clear. The Gators were bigger, stronger and the biggest factor???…..speed!
The speed difference wasn’t even close. Gator defensive lineman were chasing down speedy Ohio State QB Troy Smith and running backs in the backfield all night long. Ohio State receivers could never break away from Gator DBs.
Sure, this game wasn’t a 1-game tell-all. And Pat McAfee and Colin Cowherd surely didn’t invent football in the south.
But they both had a say in what might be the turning point of the southern college football show on display for the country.
Staying Alive
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Which teams control their destiny to make the Playoff?
Right now, it feels there are about 20 of them, and it’s making for some great angst and drama.
Everyone from No. 1 Oregon (which is already in at this point) through No. 8 Miami (which would win the ACC) is safely in if they don’t lose another game.
Ditto these teams that will win their conference and an automatic berth if they win out: No. 13 SMU (ACC), No. 14 BYU (Big 12), No. 15 Texas A&M (SEC), No. 16 Colorado (Big 12) and No. 21 Arizona State (Big 12).
So, that’s 13. But let me address some of the ones I left out.
No. 9 Ole Miss and No. 10 Georgia , the final two at-large teams, are seemingly close but could get caught up in some weird SEC tiebreaker math.
If nothing else, Texas A&M winning the SEC and supplanting Texas as the highest-ranked SEC team would bump everyone else down a rung. Or either Ole Miss or Georgia makes the title game, loses and then drops too far to remain an at-large team. (This would be painfully dumb, but I wouldn’t rule it out.) But hey, at least No. 7 Alabama has some breathing room in that scenario.
I initially planned to put No. 12 Boise State in the group above but realized No. 19 Army could well pass the Broncos for the Group of 5 berth if the Black Knights beat Notre Dame, Tulane and remain undefeated.
And I don’t think it’s possible both would finish above an 11-2 Big 12 champ. Probably neither will. That’s why I’m comfortable including Arizona State in that pool.
So, it’s 13 that control their destiny and, by my count, 23 that still hold at least a glimmer of hope the 17 I mentioned- plus No. 11 Tennessee, No. 17 Clemson (can win the ACC), No. 18 a South Carolina (slim at-large hopes), No. 20 Tulane (G5), No. 22 Iowa State (can win the Big 12) and No. 24 UNLV (G5).
Twenty-three teams with a shot with three weeks to go. Last year at this same point, there were eight.
My question is should head-to-head play a factor?
Because head-to-head is not as simple as Team A beat Team B. Was the game close or a blowout? The latter is harder to overlook. Did Team B lose at home or on the road? Losing at home is less excusable.
And most importantly, in the context of their larger seasons, did this result fit with what the teams did the rest of the year, or was it wildly out of character? One game shouldn’t automatically void the other 11.
I was mildly surprised the committee held Texas’ Week 2 road win over Alabama last season so sacrosanct given it happened so early in the season, but it felt it couldn’t include the Tide in the final four without having the Horns one spot above them.
And now this season, you’re seeing it with the way it carefully ordered Alabama-Ole Miss-Georgia. (BYU/SMU, not so much.)
But I can think of one possibility that would be an absolute nightmare for the committee.
Say Notre Dame beats Army this week but loses to USC to finish 10-2. The Irish are out, right?
Except, what if Texas A&M beats Texas to advance to the SEC Championship Game, loses that game on a last-second field goal and finishes 10-3? Greg Sankey will lose his mind if the committee keeps the Aggies out because they played a 13th game but surely they cannot put 10-win A&M in and leave out 10-win Notre Dame that won in College Station, right? It’s the same scenario as Texas-Alabama last year.
Either both would be in or neither would be in.
Buckle up it’s gonna be an exciting last two weeks of college football. Let’s see what happens!
Corrupt Committee?
By: Charlie Moon
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I have to say. I was searching a little for a column topic. But this one, it is about as easy as somebody trying to get me to eat a slice of pepperoni and sausage pizza. Yeah, if you’re reading this and you know me, then you know. I had bariatric sleeve surgery in late September.
“Moon, thought you couldn’t eat pizza anymore!” And I say…. “Shhhhhh, don’t tell the doc!”
In all seriousness, I can still eat pizza. But – only a couple bites here and there.
Back to the lecture at hand…..the ease of choosing the column topic. What I saw last on ESPN’s College Football Playoff Rankings Show, was about as intellectually rewarding as blowing dandelions on a hot summer night. Who knows, maybe some scientist can argue that blowing dandelions actually do open the brainwaves a little.
You know, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, no matter the industry. Usually, when our government makes decisions we don’t get, I often give them the nod.
My best example is: 3rd and 1, and the offense runs a simple off tackle and gets stuffed for a 2-yard loss. What happens? Armchair quarterbacks start yelling, “What was that?” “What kind of play call was that?”
But not this time!!
Look, when I watched Warde Manuel give word salad on Tuesday night’s show, I nearly had to go stand on my front porch to ensure our house had not been lifted into some 3rd dimension.
Warde Manuel is the current 8-year Michigan Athletic Director. He grew up in Michigan. He played football at Michigan under the great Bo Shembechler. Look, I’m sure he’s a great guy and a great family man….all of that. But there is absolutely no way a sitting athletic director can serve on the 12-person playoff committee that selects the 12-team playoff field.
When I did a little research, I was at Wild Wing Cafe in Statesboro. I nearly spit out the drink I was in the middle of. FIVE…. Count ‘em FIVE…. of the 12 members are either current NCAA athletic directors or are high-ranking officials in those athletic departments.
We’ve always known these playoff committees have members of current athletic departments, but to see that they constituted almost half of this year’s committee, was shocking.
I’m not going to dole out names, or give out their addresses like some of our national leaders do. But, I will criticize the committee and its member selection.
Normally, not much attention should be paid to the CFP rankings yet. But the problem is hearing their thoughts and how they rank teams.
When Warde Manuel explained why UGA was where they were and Texas was where they were, I was dumbfounded.
He said, “Yes they beat Texas. But their body of work – we just felt like 10 was the right spot.”
Ummmm…..wrong. UGA has more top 25 wins than the 2nd-6th ranked teams combined. Sure, the Dawgs got hammered by Ole Miss, but their strength of schedule is #1. The message being sent is for teams to play no one.
Look, we could argue all day long about who should be where, but there is one thing that should not be up for debate. There is no way that current school officials should be a part of selecting the teams. I’m sure they try as hard as they can to be unbiased, but human nature is what it is.
There’s no coincidence Manuel is a Big Ten guy and 4 of the top 5 teams are Big Ten. I’m not saying it “just because,” but again. The Dawgs have more top 25 wins than Ohio St, Indiana and Penn St combined.
I’ll just wrap it up this way. Let’s go back to the computers – honestly!
All Bark?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
If anyone’s wondering how important Georgia’s showdown against Tennessee is on Saturday, let me tell you.
Win, and all is OK, full steam ahead to the College Football Playoffs and perhaps even a National Championship.
Lose, this season is set, but not in a good way.
It’s not ideal for any team to lose football games, but it happens. It’s much less ideal to try to clean up two viral messes from that loss. It’s even less ideal to field a question about whether to change quarterbacks.
The first viral moment: Carson Beck, starting and beleaguered quarterback, was spotted smiling on the bench as he spoke with backup quarterback Jaden Rashada during the fourth quarter of Georgia’s 28-10 loss to Ole Miss (UGA’s largest point margin loss in five years).
The visual was seized as a symbol of what’s wrong with Beck and perhaps the entire Bulldog football team.
The optics were poor and out of context: Harlen Rashada, Jaden’s father, posted, showing the moment before, Beck not smiling, Jaden Rashada telling him something that made him laugh.
Here the internet had birthed yet another out-of-context viral moment.
Beck’s on-field play has noticeably regressed. The easy excuse is he wasn’t focused during the offseason, between his Lambo and his personal life. Beck told me in the spring he wasn’t working any less, he was taking time to enjoy life after four years of hard work, which he certainly had earned.
We have seen many young athletes enjoy their life as a college student, and still thrive on the field.
It also feels invalid to attribute the offensive troubles to Beck’s leadership. He’s never been a rah-rah quarterback, and Stetson Bennett wasn’t either.
The difference might be the leaders around Beck. Nobody appears to have filled the void left by center Sedrick Van Pran. There isn’t an obvious alpha personality on the other side of the ball the way this year’s defense has Jalen Walker.
But the defense shouldn’t be absolved of blame, either. It came up huge in the wins over Texas and Clemson but also gave up big plays at Ole Miss, started soft against Alabama and has earned a reputation of inconsistency, ranking eighth in the SEC in defensive yards per play.
It’s not like a great defense is being wasted. A ton of world-class athletes on defense aren’t playing to their potential. Luckily for them, there’s still time. There’s still time for the whole team.
In the wide scope of this season, going 10-2 with this schedule is perfectly acceptable.
The focus then moves to how Georgia performs in the Playoff, where pressure still waits, but the minimum threshold of making the dance has been hit.
Missing the Playoff, meanwhile, would in the kindest interpretation mean that Georgia was a flawed team undone by a brutal schedule.
The harsher takeaway would be that the schedule exposed a team that isn’t very good and the program has work to do this offseason to get back to status.
Even then, perspective is needed. This is a program that has won two of the past three national championships, then fell short but still went 13-1. If anyone has earned leeway to slip its Georgia.
If any coach has shown he can adapt and make needed changes, it’s Smart. Panicky fans need to touch grass.
Georgia may feel a lot better after Saturday. Through these years of winning Smart has loved to say that “humility is a week away.” Well, humility is here, and so is the chance for redemption.
SEC Dominance
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Kirby Smart wrapped up practice Tuesday at The University of Georgia. The College Football Playoff rankings just released, naturally interviewers asked Smart if the expanding field to 12 this year changed his curiosity.
“I could care less,” Smart said. “Because what is a quality win and a quality loss right now; they’ve been known to change their mind before it comes.”
The format may be different and the field may be bigger, but Georgia has experienced this before. Texas did last year. Tennessee did two years ago. Alabama and LSU have plenty of experience with it. At this point, everyone knows the deal by now.
Smart and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey may not love Georgia’s rank at third, behind two Big Ten teams, while the Bulldogs are second in the AP and coaches polls.
There are seven SEC teams in the top 25, by far the most of any conference (in second place: the Big Ten. With four). That’s an important note for a couple of reasons:
With four in the top 12 (Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama) and a few in striking distance (No. 14 Texas A&M, No. 15 LSU, No. 16 Ole Miss), this sets up more SEC teams to make the playoffs in the future.
Second, more SEC teams will have more chances for ranked wins, or their ranked losses might not seem as bad to the rankings.
Georgia bought itself a lot of room with its win at Texas, giving it a second ranked win, and its only loss came at Alabama. It would seem the Bulldogs need only get a split of the next two games at Ole Miss and Tennessee and they would be in. Even if UGA lost both games, they would have an argument.
Texas and Tennessee also have one loss but a little less leeway.
Texas is clearly in if they win out, although losing at Texas A&M in the regular-season finale would make things dicey.
The Longhorns don’t have a win over any team in the Top 25. Vanderbilt, ranked in the AP, didn’t make the CFP rankings.
Tennessee is all set if they win out because an 11-1 record with a win at Georgia is a strong argument.
If The Vols are competitive at Georgia and lose, 10-2 with two road losses but a win against Alabama may be enough to get it done. Of course, the regular-season finale at Vanderbilt isn’t a sure win.
Texas A&M, meanwhile, is not in the field right now — 14th — but the assignment seems straightforward: Win out, including the Texas game, and the Aggies are close enough to feel good about their chances.
Important caveat: winning out is no guarantee; it depends heavily on what happens elsewhere. As Smart pointed out, the committee is known to change their mind.
Alabama at LSU this week: The loser has a third loss, which puts its Playoff hopes to sleep, while the winner is in great shape. But is the loser truly done and the winner truly in?
Alabama would have three losses to ranked teams LSU, Tennessee and Vanderbilt, if it could sneak into the CFP Top 25 with one ranked win (Georgia) and some others that might check off as good.
LSU may need this win more. It has a loss to unranked USC and the other to Texas A&M. Their best win right now is against Ole Miss.
Then there’s Ole Miss, which is almost certainly done if it loses to Georgia this week. But if Ole Miss wins, that would give it something a ranked win and winning out would mean a 10-2 record.
Still, it has a home loss to Kentucky, and other than the Georgia game, there isn’t much impressive on the resume. So, Lane Kiffin’s team would seem at the mercy of the committee and things falling its way elsewhere.
There are so many important games left and too many data points left to draw any grand conclusions. Nobody from the SEC is definitely in yet, and seven teams still have a realistic shot.
That number figures to go down after this weekend. The question is whether it continues going down over the coming weeks or the SEC ends up with a half-dozen candidates for only so many spots.
Lost Luster?
By: Jeff Doke
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For almost every year of my five decades on this planet, the end of October has been a time of the year I have enthusiastically anticipated.
As a young boy, it was the sirens call of Halloween, with the annual trip to Gibson’s to select the perfect Ben Cooper costume and the anticipation of how many houses in Northwood Estates would have full-size candy bars this year (we could always count on a couple).
As I grew older, the building anticipation came from when we would be making our annual trip to the Jaycees haunted house.
I think my dad and I had more fun laughing at the other people scared out of their wits than we were ever actually scared by the experience.
At least once he tried to chase down a group that literally ran screaming from the exit just so he could offer to pay to let them go through again. Fifty-two years and I’m not sure I’ve ever laughed harder.
After that, it became a matter of wondering if I was going to get invite to the good Halloween parties in high school. Think post-pubescent Charlie Brown obsessively checking his locker to see if any notes had been slipped in between classes. Spoiler alert: they rarely were.
The one constant through all of those eras – as well as every era since – has been the heady anticipation of the one UGA football rivalry that hasn’t been shuffled and re-dealt by the SEC home offices.
The one game that we could pretty much always count on being on TV, even in the four channel days when our Dawg fix would usually come from WGIG via the global band AM radio in my dad’s workshop.
From the Dooley days to Goff, on through Donnan and Richt, and finally the arrival of King Kirby, the end of October meant one thing and one thing only to the mean machine in Red & Black – the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. The Border War. The Georgia Florida game.
During the lean years, Ga/Fla was our SEC Championship before there was such a thing. It was the Super Bowl, Worl Series, and Daytona 500 all rolled into one. It was the pinnacle of the football year. We could go 0-11 the rest of the year as long as we beat Florida…okay 1-10. Still gotta thump Tech. Priorities, man.
It’s a well-established fact that the Spurrier years were rough for the rivalry. Ole’ Satan in a Sun visor had our number just about every single year, and hope was hard to come by.
I was briefly involved with a Florida fan once, and she said that in those days, Florida fans didn’t care about the game because they knew they were going to win, they were just glad to be able to drink at the tailgate.
Ouch. Not inaccurate, but ouch, nonetheless.
Those days are thankfully a thing of the past, and the tables have turned just about as much as any table could.
Dawg fans are living through the golden years and should appreciate them as such.
Gator nation on the other hand is suffering through one off the worst SEC coaching administrations for someone not named “Dave Shula.”
Billy “Swing blade” Napier is bad. Really bad. Historically so in the annuls of Gainesville programs. Recruiting, coaching, PR, the Gators are stinking up the joint on all points, have been since the end of the Mullen run, and there is no real sense of hope that it will get any better anytime soon.
Considering all of this, has the WLOCP lost some of it’s luster? Does a massively lopsided matchup make this game anything less than “Must See TV?”
What, are you kidding me? Did you not hear me mention Spurrier a few paragraphs back? Remember those years. Remember the mocking, the sneering, the drunken gator chomps you endured walking back to the parking garage from the Gator Bowl/AllTel/EverBank.
Revel in the fact that we’re the ones barking now while the jorts-clad masses are weeping into their Mike’s Hard Lemonade.
And Go Dawgs!
Stars To Align?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Florida head coach Billy Napier probably didn’t save his job by drubbing Kentucky.
But maybe he did enough in a must-not-lose game to think maybe, just maybe, there’s maybe a path to a fourth season for Billy.
The beatdown provided a dose of optimism that Napier can coach a high caliber team in the future, if not this season.
Injuries to veteran starters Graham Mertz and Montrell Johnson meant Florida had to start true freshmen at quarterback (DJ Lagway) and running back (Jadan Baugh) for the first time in program history. That duo sparked the Gators’ best offensive performance in years.
Beating Kentucky is a baseline expectation at Florida. It used to be, at least; the Gators won 31 in a row before Mark Stoops snapped the streak in 2018.
Stoops won his first two against Napier. No Florida coach has lost three in a row to Kentucky in more than 70 years (Bob Woodruff, 1948-51). Napier, compared to his expectations, merely avoided ignominy with a win Saturday.
Besides, the real tests are still ahead. The 4-3 Gators were off last week before the daunting, season-ending stretch fans have been dreading for months: No. 2 Georgia in Jacksonville, at No. 5 Texas, home against No. 8 LSU and No. 18 Ole Miss and at rival FSU.
In Austin, TX, in front of a stadium-record 105,215 fans, Kirby Smart’s Dawgs (6-1, 4-1 SEC) unleashed the most havoc-wreaking defensive performance of the season in a 30-15 win.
It got so bad, so fast for Texas (6-1, 2-1 SEC), trailing 20-0 in the second quarter, that Steve Sarkisian briefly benched starting QB Quinn Ewers for, only to go back to Ewers after two series.
Neither QB had a chance, given the Horns offensive line had no answers for Georgia pass rushers Jason Walker (three sacks, four QB hurries), Mykel Williams(two sacks) and Damon Wilson (one strip-sack).
Georgia may well turn around and lay an egg against Florida, but they can afford it. Kirby Smart will not allow the Dawgs to be flat in Jacksonville.
The Dawgs open up as a 17 1/2 point Favorite against the Gators.
Florida hasn’t played a team as talented on the roster as Georgia. The Gators will need the stars to align to have a chance at the cocktail party.
If Billy Napier can pull off a miraculous victory over the heavily favored Dawgs, he may be able to save his job for one more season.
Georgia just has way way way too much talent for this game to even be close. Also, this game is personal for Kirby and Georgia starting quarterback Carson Beck.
To quote Clubber Lane from Rocky III my prediction is PAIN!
Georgia 47
Florida 20
Hope
By: Jeff Doke
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” “An Essay On Man”, Alexander Pope, 1732.
There’s a fun little recurring character in the “SEC Shorts” video series named Hope. She premiered before the 2021 Georgia championship season and spent most of the season hyping up the Dawgs’ national championship aspirations.
While it eventually turned out that those hopes were well-founded, Hope left at the end of the season for Texas A&M. While that seemed like the most likely fanbase in need of some hopefulness, there were several other destinations she could have landed – Tennessee, Kentucky, or Missouri for example.
Florida, however, was firmly not on that list.
Hope hasn’t dared to set foot in Gainesville for a while now. The Gators have not had bonafied National Championship aspirations since Urban Meyer’s alleged “cardiac incident.”
While Muschamp, McElwain, and Mullen managed to have more wins than losses in their alliterative runs in the swamp, Florida now finds Billy Napier at the helm.
O Hope, where art thou?
Not in Gainesville, that’s for sure. Although the 2024 Gators go into the WLOCP with a surprising 4-2 record (3 more wins at this point than I predicted in the preseason), the high point of the season may have already passed them by.
Consecutive matchups against UGA, Texas, LSU, and Ole Miss await the Gators in the month of November.
Granted their regular season wraps up against the even-bigger-dumpster-fire that is the 2024 FSU Seminoles, but it looks like once again the 2024 Florida gators Bowl Game t-shirts are gonna be plain white Fruit Of The Looms, straight out of the cellophane wrapper.
The future isn’t looking much brighter. The 2025 Gators recruiting class sits at 33rd in the nation, 15th in the SEC.
The 2026 class is better, clocking in at 11th nationally and 7th in the conference, but if Billy Napier somehow manages to avoid the axe this postseason, expect some of those commits to bail and those rankings to take a tumble.
For the moment, let’s look at the here and now. In this, the greatest of all border war matchup in CFB, it is well known that the records do not matter.
Upsets aplenty when these two teams mix it up on the banks of the St. John’s; Florida costing the Dawgs a shot at the National Championship in 2002, UGA knocking off #1 Florida in 1985, and the “unsportsmanlike conduct on the entire team” game all come to mind…but what about 2024?
Let’s be honest. This is a weird season. Army & Navy are both undefeated. Alabama has two losses. Vanderbilt made an appearance in the Top 25, for crying out loud. Would a Napier defeat of Kirby be too far out of the question?
To be blunt, yes.
The Dawgs are on the hunt after the Alabama loss. The defeat of top-ranked Texas shows that they are still an elite program. Above everything else, Kirby Smart’s hatred of all things blue & orange is well documented. I’m not a betting man, but if I were, I’d be selling off a few semi-vital organs on the black market just to put more down on the Dawgs to walk away from EverBank Stadium with the W.
Yes, hope springs eternal, but if you’re looking for Hope in Florida this weekend, I’d try Mons Venus in Tampa, maybe the pickleball courts in The Villages.
Not Jacksonville, though. Hope doesn’t live there for the Gators.
Tail-Gate Time
By: Michael Spiers
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The annual Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville is widely regarded as the ultimate tailgating event in the country, surpassing even the most celebrated sporting events.
Once known as “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” this pre-game celebration transcends traditional tailgating, turning into a multi-day festival of food, drinks, and camaraderie between two of college football’s most passionate fanbases: the Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators.
Tailgating for the Georgia-Florida game begins almost a full week before kickoff. Fans start arriving in RVs, buses, and other vehicles days before kickoff, setting up camp in various lots around Jacksonville’s EverBank Field.
By Wednesday, the first official RV lots open, and the party kicks into high gear, lasting through Saturday’s game.
Fans drive golf carts decked out in team colors, move between lots to socialize, and stock up on supplies like champagne for gameday mimosas.
Police officers and city officials embrace the event, recognizing its massive economic impact on Jacksonville, while tolerating the raucous behavior of nearly 100,000 attendees.
The scale of the event is mind-boggling. RV lots cater to every type of tailgater, from the all-out party enthusiasts to families seeking a quieter experience.
Tailgating setups are often elaborate, with some fans renting train cars or docking yachts along the nearby St. Johns River for a “boatgating” experience.
The floating tailgates offer a more refined experience, often featuring gourmet options like pickled-okra deviled eggs and oyster tacos, accompanied by drinks such as grapefruit-rosemary mimosas.
The river itself plays a key role in the event, with slips at the Metropolitan Park Marina booking up within seconds once they’re available in early September.
While the game takes place on Halloween weekend, the tailgating scene also embraces the holiday spirit, with lots decorated in spooky themes and children trick-or-treating among the RVs on Friday night.
Families and friends gather year after year, creating traditions that are passed down through generations. For some fans that have attended the tailgating festivities for decades, the event is almost like a family reunion where memories are constantly made and new experiences are discovered.
One of the most impressive aspects of the tailgating event is the mostly peaceful coexistence between two bitter football rivals. Despite the intensity of the Georgia-Florida rivalry, fans from both sides share food, drinks, and good-natured banter, with little to no hostility.
The atmosphere remains one of mutual respect, making the tailgate an enjoyable experience for everyone involved, regardless of which team wins.
The Georgia-Florida game, held at a ‘neutral site’ in Jacksonville since 1933, has evolved into a hallmark of college football culture, representing the best aspects of tailgating.
As kickoff approaches on Saturday, the energy builds to a fever pitch. Marching bands begin to play, fans fill the stadium, and the food and drink continue to flow.
The aroma of Southern staples like Brunswick stew and turkey fryers wafts through the air, while fans sip on signature drinks like “Gator Punch” or a Bloody Mary to prepare for the game. The tailgate atmosphere follows fans into the stadium, where half the tickets are allocated to Georgia fans and the other half to Florida fans, creating an electrifying environment inside EverBank Field.
This event, while ostensibly about football, has become so much more. It’s about the experience, the friendships, and the memories that are forged in a multi-day celebration that brings thousands of people together.
Jacksonville’s unique role as the host city enhances the grandeur of the event, and for anyone who loves college football or tailgating, the Georgia-Florida game is a must-see spectacle that should be on every sports fan’s bucket list.Top of FormBottom of Form
