By: Drayton Hogarth

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

It is time, yet again, for the annual Georgia-Florida border war. The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party has been the location of many of the historical skirmishes in all of college football.

There is no doubt that Everbank Field, or best known as the former Gator Bowl, has been witness to some of the greatest college football players to ever grace the collegiate gridiron. Herschel Walker, Tim Tebow, David Pollack, and Steve Spurrier just to name a few in the last half decade, have seen the highest of highs or met the agony of defeat in this bitter rivalry.

There are numerous games that could be mentioned, but these are the top four games in this series.

The greatest game of all time in this storied rivalry happened in the 1980 season. No one expected a young freshman running back named Herschel Walker to come in and take the college football world by storm.

Walker was the missing piece that would make the Georgia offense run. When the game down in Jacksonville was winding down, it appeared that the Bulldogs’ dreams of a national championship looked to be floating away down the St. Johns River.

The Bulldogs found themselves down 21-20, and had the ball on the 7 yard line, 3rd down, very late in the 4th quarter.

Quarterback Buck Belue would rollout, evade a blitzing linebacker, and then find wide out Lindsay Scott at the 25. Scott would outrun the entire Florida defense for the eventual winning score. The win would give Georgia the boost it needed to carry momentum to the Sugar Bowl and bring home the national championship.

In 2002, Georgia coach Mark Richt brought his Georgia squad into Jacksonville with an undefeated record, and a top five ranking. The Bulldogs were looking to make another move toward getting into the national championship.

Florida would even have disaster hit by losing their top wide receiver, Taylor Jacobs, who would suffer a knee injury early on in the game, but it just didn’t matter. The rest of the Gator receiving corp would step up, and the Florida defense would play out of their minds by holding the Bulldogs to zero, yes zero for thirteen, third down conversions.

Even still the Bulldogs had an opportunity to win the game, but a late drop of a deep pass would squash any hopes of continuing on to another undefeated season and chance for a national title; all of that would go away with the 20-13 loss.

The 1990’s were truly unkind to the Georgia Bulldogs in the series against the Florida Gators. However, the lone win under coach Jim Donnan in Jacksonville was a celebratory victory where the Bulldogs unleashed almost a decade of frustration as running back Robert Edwards and quarterback Mike Bobo would lead Georgia to 37-17 dominant win over Florida.

The defense as well, would frustrate the “Ol’ Ball Coach” Steve Spurrier as current Georgia coach Kirby Smart would snag two interceptions to further cement the victory.

Again, in 2003, the fourth-ranked Bulldogs were very much in the national title race until a Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville. Georgia ran for 202 yards and held unranked Florida to 1-for-12 on third down, but the Gators sacked QB David Greene four times and intercepted him twice. QB Chris Leak drove the Gators from their 17 to the Georgia 15, where Matt Leach kicked a game-winning field goal with 33 seconds remaining.

The Georgia Florida rivalry in Jacksonville is a rivalry that has been decisive in determining the outcome of the SEC East, the Southeastern Conference title, and even the national championship.

This season is no different, while Georgia is out of the running for any of those titles, they could play spoiler against the Florida Gators as they have the inside track now to the SEC East crown. This is the kind of thing that makes the Georgia-Florida game a must-watch every season.