By: Christian Goeckel

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

In a series that has been dominated by Florida in recent history, a lot of traditional football knowledge can be tossed to the wayside.

Remember the year Treon Harris completed three passes IN THE ENTIRE GAME and Florida still demolished Georgia 38-20?

Yeah, this series is the definition of “throw out the record books”. So, in the spirit of the World’s Largest Outdoor…or whatever it is now, I’m throwing out the same old matchup rundown and digging deep and getting weird with the fringe matchups that will decide this decidedly weird, beautiful, annual tradition.

Florida’s Offense vs Malik Zaire. Imagine it..Florida trails Georgia by four late in the third. The Gator’s offense’s only points coming after a Jake Fromm pick gave them the ball in the redzone, which they turn into negative yards and a field goal.

McElwain glances over his shoulder at Malik Zaire who sits there with his weird Peyton Manning sleeves. Beads of sweat form above the Coach’s Costas as flashbacks of Zaire at Notre Dame play in his head. “He wasn’t that bad in the Michigan game, was he?”, “Could it get any worse?”.

Yes coach, yes it can. Florida’s only chance in this game is Franks’ ability to stretch the field with his deep ball. Drew Lock may have exposed a chink in the vaunted defense of Georgia last week by going over the top.

If Florida caves and throws in Zaire, any deep ball threat is immediately gone, allowing Georgia to stack the box with their nasty pass rushers. There’s a reason Franks was a 5 star, we may not know what it is, but we know it’s better than anything Zaire can provide.

Georgia’s Tight Ends vs a Black Hole. Man, that Isaac Nauta guy was so good, I miss watching him play. Remember Jeb Blazevich? What a great leader, that dude really had hands. Georgia’s had some pretty daggum good tight ends, huh?

News Flash. Both of those guys are still members of the University of Georgia Football team. It seems counterintuitive that a team with a freshman quarterback would fail to utilize the best tight end group in the country, but that’s absolutely been the case.

To be fair, they haven’t really been needed as Georgia has just pounded opponents into submission and opposing corners have been playing ten yards off of Georgia’s wide outs allowing for easy completions to them.

As the season progresses, however, this group will need to step up, most likely in this game. Florida still has talent on the edges and will not give Georgia’s wideouts the room they’ve grown accustomed to. That means Fromm will have to look to the middle for some help. Luckily, he has an all-star cast to throw to if he does.

Jim Chaney vs Jim Chaney. Twelve. Nick Chubb and Sony Michel combined for TWELVE carries last year against Florida. Chubb lead the way with a whopping 9 carries for 20 yards. This lead to what I’m sure was a very peaceful meeting between the aforementioned running backs and their offensive coordinator.

The next game? 40 combined carries for Michel and Chubb for over 200 yards.

This is really simple, Georgia has five running backs that could start for any team not named Alabama. Run. The. Football.

Sure, Fromm proved that he can air it out against Missouri, but that’s not what’s going to get this team to Atlanta. Chubb and Michel came back to Georgia to establish a legacy. What better way to continue that than bowling over Florida one last time?

If Chaney comes out and weathers the initial run defense of Florida, this bevy of backs will be breaking huge runs later in the game. If not, it could be another hair-puller in Jacksonville.