Bishop Media Sports Network
The Playoff Picture
By: Jason Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Well, here we go. The last week of the high school football regular season is upon us.
The playoffs will start in two weeks and as always southeast Georgia will be well represented. But who will be playing where?
Brunswick High Pirates: The Pirates will travel to Springfield Friday night to take on the Effingham Rebels in what amounts to a region championship game.
BHS is the last unbeaten team in 6A and comes in at 9-0 on the season and undefeated in the region. Effingham’s only region loss is to Richmond Hill.
If the Pirates knock off the Rebels, BHS will lock up a #1 seed and will most likely be hosting Tucker. However, if Effingham upsets the Pirates, then Effingham would be region champion and BHS would likely host Lovejoy as a #2 seed.
Ware County Gators: The Gators are 7-1 on the season and undefeated in their region. Ware holds wins over Coffee, Veterans and Warner Robins; thus, they have locked up the region no matter the outcome of the Wayne County game Friday night.
The Gators will most likely host Banneker out of region 3-5A in the first round.
MCA Buccaneers: MCA is 4-4-1 on the year and currently holds the #3 seed in 3-1A Public.
The Bucs will head up to Millen Friday night with the #3 seed on the line against Jenkins County. The winner of that game will get the #3 seed and the loser will end up with #4 seed.
A #3 seed means a road trip to Mitchell County, a very winnable game. However, a #4 seed means a date with the Pelham Hornets, a much tougher game.
Glynn Academy Red Terrors: The Red Terrors are 3-5-1 on the season and are in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in the Rocky Hidalgo era.
Glynn’s only chance to get into the playoffs is to beat Statesboro Friday night at Glynn County Stadium.
If the Red Terrors succeed at knocking off the Blue Devils, they will earn a #4 seed and they would face Langston Hughes, the #1 seed from region 4.
Langston Hughes knocked Glynn out of the playoffs last year in the second round, 35-0.
Camden County Wildcats: The Wildcats have struggled closing games in the second half of the season. Camden has locked up the #4 seed in their region with a 4-6 record.
The Wildcats lost the last 5 games of the season. In fairness, Camden could have very easily won 4 of those games.
The Wildcats will head up to Atlanta to play the #1 seed in region 3, North Cobb.
Camden is a very dangerous #4 seed.
Charlton County Indians: The Indians nipped Lanier County last week by one point, earning the #4 seed from region 2-1A Public.
Charlton will take on Atkinson County Friday Night to close out their regular season, looking for a 7-3 regular season.
After that the Indians will take to the road in the first round of the playoffs to take Montgomery County, the #1 seed from 4-1A Public.
Frederica Academy Knights: The Knights currently are 4-5 on the season and hold the #2 position in GISA 2-3A. Frederica will head up to Dublin Friday night to take on Trinity Christian.
If the Knights win over Trinity, they will finish #2 in the region, however GISA uses a different ranking system than GHSA.
The most likely scenario is the Knights end up with #5 seed and a first round bye in the playoffs.
Frederica Academy Knights Coach’s Show w Brandon Derrick October 27
Brunswick High Pirates Coach’s Show w Sean Pender October 27
And The Winner Is…..
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Following an off week, the Florida Gators are set to take on the No. 1 ranked Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville.
The gators re coming off an embarrassing loss to LSU. The Bulldogs enter this weekend game undefeated. The Gators open this week as a 14-point underdog.
The context that makes this year’s World’s Largest Cocktail Party so compelling is that Florida can put up points and move the ball. The Gators are ranked No. 5 nationally in yards per play, better than any team Georgia has faced or will face this season.
With Mullen refusing to commit to promising redshirt freshman Anthony Richardson, the Gators need a Superman performance from their quarterback.
Georgia’s defense is built in the trenches and Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter, Devonte Wyatt, Travon Walker and Nolan Smith are the main pieces in this dominating front.
These guys not only win on-on-one blocks; they are absolute menaces to opposing offenses. Georgia loves to substitute and play situational defense and does a great job at maximizing their talent while rotating and keeping players fresh.
The Bulldogs are great at creating pressure to make quarterbacks think they are bringing more than they are and forcing sacks and turnovers. Georgia loves to stunt and play games with their defensive lineman.
What is Florida’s identity on offense? Who knows, the first three weeks of the season, the Gators were a top rushing team in the country. The last few weeks, Florida has looked completely different trying to throw the ball around the field.
Richardson seems to spark the Gators offense and they respond when he’s in the game. He gives them the best chance to win. Mullen needs to accept the younger player is better and needs to play.
Mullen will need to dial up a great game plan to exploit Georgia’s aggressive front-7. The best way to score on the Bulldogs is to get to the back end of their defense, but does Florida have the QB, OL and skill players to test them.
No doubt the Gator’s defense spent the entire bye week working on playing the counter better. LSU ate their lunch with it. That makes me believe that Georgia will have to see if the Gators can stop the run.
Look for Zamir White, Kendall Milton and James Cook to rake up big runs against the undisciplined Gators front-7. Georgia’s running game will set up play action passes. Brock Bowers will create big play opportunities with size and speed.
Kirby Smart has owned Dan Mullen in their careers (3-1) as head coaches. He owns Mullen when it comes to recruiting. Smart will own Mullen on Saturday.
My Prediction: Georgia 45 Florida 20
The Big Letdown
By: Jeff Doke
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
When I was a freshman at Young Harris College, I was introduced to a south Florida-based parrot head musician named Del Suggs. The chorus of one of his songs said “when everything’s coming up roses, I get suspicious.”
Boy howdy, does that sentiment ring true right now.
As any lifelong Dawg fan will gladly tell you – whether you want to hear it or not – we’ve been through a lot over the years: Second & 26. Half a hundred between the hedges. No, make that the entire Steve Spurrier run.
The Dawgs have been close (or should have been close) so many times since 1980 that many of us have developed a healthy sense of skepticism. Can you blame us though? We survived Jim Donnan *AND* Mark Richt.
This year feels different, though. Undefeated through seven games. Undefeated in the SEC with our backup quarterback and a decimated receiver corp. A defense that has allowed only 4 touchdowns all year…and it would have been three if Mark Stoops’ bookie hadn’t gotten that call through. Georgia, no matter how badly we don’t want to say it out loud, looks unstoppable.
This year’s Georgia/Florida game shouldn’t be a trap game. So why is it making me so nervous?
The 2021 Floriduh Gaturs are not a good football team. Neither QB has proved to be outstanding, although both were described as such in the preseason.
Yes, they almost took Bama to overtime, but I’m standing by my belief that this year’s Bama is a paper tiger.
Dan Mulllen has already gotten a third L to supplement the two Ls you can’t spell his name without. Not only are they not at their usual spot in the top 2 spots of the SEC East, they’re in 4th, behind Tennessee AND KENTUCKY.
Let that sink in. Florida is behind Kentucky. In FOOTBALL.
I’m pretty sure this is mentioned somewhere in Revelations, I’m just scared to look.
I’m nervous about this game because records and rankings absolutely do not matter in this matchup. Let’s take a look at the last few times a highly ranked UGA team has gone up against an unranked Florida squad.
2017 – #3 Georgia 42 – Florida 7. Okay, this one worked out the way we thought, but just wait.
2014 – Florida 38 – #9 Georgia 20. I’m not sure, but I think this was the year Fred Taylor’s kid decided he had some of his old man’s talent. Not sure, I’ve blocked this game from my memory.
2002 – Florida 20 – #5 Georgia 13. Ron Zook’s first year as coach (yeah, I forgot him, too), and a team led by a QB most famous for almost breaking his fool neck headbutting a cement wall on national television.
If we were to flip the script, the last time an unranked Georgia squad beat a ranked Florida team was 1989.
Thirty-two years ago. When George Bush was still in office. The first one, that is.
This is why I am hesitant to embrace hope this year, much less this week. Weird stuff happens at the WLOCP.
True, the 2021 Bulldogs have started to be mentioned in “best of all time” discussions, and rightfully so. JT Daniels is trending towards playing, and let’s be honest, it won’t be a heartbreak if he doesn’t – you’d like to see the Mailman get some payback for last year too, yeah?
My mind says “we’ve got this.” My heart says “ease up off the gas there, pablo.”
My cardiology nurse, however, says “please stop watching Georgia football.” I should probably listen to her, considering she’s my wife.
Camden County Wildcats Coach’s Show w Jeff Herron October 27
The Ole Ball Coach
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Going into the 1990 season Georgia held a commanding 44-22-2 lead in the annual rivalry game in Jacksonville.
UGA fans went to Jacksonville knowing they would find a way to win the contest even if Florida had a better record or more talent.
Bad things always happened to Florida when games were on the line and they would find a way to lose a game they had won. The Florida fan base had come to expect to lose every year.
Florida fans say that was BS, which stands for “Before Spurrier”. Florida hired their Heisman winning QB Steve Spurrier as their head football coach in 1990.
Spurrier’s teams were known for winning with aggressive and high-scoring offenses, and he became known for teasing and “needling” rivals, both before and after beating them on the field.
He is the winningest coach in both Florida and South Carolina program history, and his last Duke squad won the program’s only Atlantic Coast Conference championship over the last half-century in 1989.
Florida’s four consecutive Southeastern Conference championships in the mid-1990s is the second-longest streak in conference history, behind Bear Bryant’s 1970s Alabama teams, and Spurrier and Bryant are the only coaches to hold the record for most conference wins at two different SEC schools.
Spurrier is second to Bryant in total wins, while leading an SEC program.
When Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel won the Heisman Trophy during the Gators’ 1996 national championship season, Spurrier became the only Heisman Trophy winner to coach another Heisman Trophy winner.
In recognition to his contributions to the university and its football program, the University of Florida officially renamed the Gators’ home field “Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium” in 2016.
Immediately the ball coach dominated the series. Take a look at these scores:
1990: Florida 38-7
1991; Florida 45-13
1992: Florida 26-24
1993: Florida 33-26
1994: Florida 52-14
1995: Florida 52-17
1996: Florida 47-7
Georgia fans stopped coming in droves to Jacksonville and began to say we may never win in Jacksonville ever again as long as this guy is there.
No head coach in history has owned more free space in the head of an opposing fan base than Steve Spurrier has over the Georgia Bulldog nation.
When UGA broke the 7 game losing streak in 1997 to UF the ball coach responded by winning four straight before leaving for the Washington Redskins after the 2001 season.
Spurrier ended his Florida coaching career with an 11-1 record against UGA. Total domination from every possible angle, but the mental control over UGA still lingers to this day.
I’m a huge UGA fan and always seem to expect the worst possible scenario because of one man Steve Spurrier. If you are a Georgia fan and say this Spurrier mojo doesn’t still linger then you are lying to yourself.
The mojo is losing its luster as the years go by, but it still creeps in from time to time.
Steve Spurrier is on the Mt. Rushmore of SEC Football Coaches. The man transformed the SEC into what it has evolved into today.
I’m not a Florida fan, but I respect Steve Spurrier as much as any football coach that has ever roamed the sidelines. Steve Spurrier did a number on the Bulldog Nation that has lingered for 30 years.
Georgia leads the series with Florida now 53-44-2. Florida is 22-9 since they hired the Ole Ball Coach, who got 11 of those wins and he hasn’t coached in this rivalry game since 2001.
Big Game Dan
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Dan Mullen likes to play Darth Vader, but this recent stretch of Florida Gator football has exposed Dan as more of a Wile E Coyote.
The last time the Gators played, it was like Coach Orgeron painted a tunnel on the side of a mountain, and Mullen ran right into it.
Mullen has become the hapless villain more likely to have an anvil fall on him than to succeed in chasing down the roadrunner.
LSU lost their star receiver and top two corners. On paper, the Tigers had no chance to win.
But, through the power of Mullen mayhem, the Florida Gators found a way to make it happen.
Todd Grantham, a fan favorite in every SEC town except Gainesville, coached a defense that surrendered 321 yards in rushing yards alone.
Tyrion Davis-Price ran for 287 yards and 3 touchdowns, the most ever against a Gator defense, breaking a record previously held by Herschel Walker. With all due respect to David-Price, it took a special kind of defensive breakdown to let a running back of this caliber not only break a Herschel Walker record, but do it by 50 yards.
Richardson did look terrific on the bulk of his offensive drives, but even that story comes with a twist. The Gators’ quarterback said after the game he couldn’t write off the possibility that he’d transfer. On the plus side, no one threw a shoe!
Losing sucks, and the Gators are going to have more than 3 losses for the first time since 2017.
Mullen’s Record…
LSU is 1-3
UGA is 1-2 (1-3 on Saturday)
UK is 2-2
Alabama is 0-2
His first three seasons were fun. It felt like the swag and excitement were back. For a moment, The Swamp was rocking again. Florida was a top 10 team hungry for more. Playing in the SEC Championship and winning NY6 bowl games. For a moment, The Gator Standard had returned.
How did Florida get to where they are now?
Let’s start with three years of mediocre recruiting, as well as settling on a mediocre staff; and it is finally catching up.
Mullen will not want to get rid of Grantham, but Mullen’s hand will be forced. The heat will turn onto the head coach instead if nothing is done, or better yet, accomplished soon.
Last year, Mullen opted to retain Grantham, instead firing a pair of assistant coaches in the secondary, content that should be enough to fix the issues.
If you go back and look at their last 15 quarters in SEC play, Florida has given up 37 points per game. 49 LSU points later, it might be time for a change.
Florida and Georgia will face off in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, but Florida fans might want to as well start drinking now. The less you remember, the better.
Florida has now lost six of their last eight games against Power 5 teams, dating back to last year.
Of course, Mullen has already explained that the final game of 2020 came before the blowout loss to Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl, and in fairness, he’s never said when the 2021 season was officially going to start, and with his performance, he could fool me!
Toothless Gators
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Florida Gators are at a crossroads going into the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. They are 4 – 3 but the concern is the way they looked against teams perceived as inferior.
Florida started the season off with two blowout victories against Florida Atlantic and South Florida.
It looks like things went wrong after the third game. The Gators lost to #1 Alabama, 31 – 29. They played well against the defending national champs and may have been too satisfied with the moral victory.
Florida had more total yards than the Crimson Tide, 439 yards to 331. They ran for 244 yards and it looked like that would be their offensive identity going forward.
They beat Tennessee the following week, then lost at Kentucky. They pummeled Vanderbilt for homecoming, 42 – 0.
Going into the LSU game the Tigers were a .500 team. They lost two consecutive games to Auburn and Kentucky. This was also the case last season when they beat Florida in The Swamp. UF was favored by 11 ½ points.
Ed Orgeron was on the hot seat again, but he saves his best coaching performances for the Gators. They ran the ball at will and running back Tyrion Davis-Price rushed for 287 yards with three touchdowns.
Florida’s leading rusher was backup QB Anthony Richardson, but he only had 37 yards.
“The one stat to me stands out a lot is we’re minus-4 turnover ratio,” Florida coach Dan Mullen said. “We didn’t stop the run and make the stops we needed to in the second half when we started to gain momentum. Every time we’d get that kind of fix to get ourselves out of the hole we kind of couldn’t get the stop to get over the hump.”
Quarterback Emory Jones struggles with accuracy, consistency and decision making. He’s thrown for 1,305 yards, 10 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. He has rushed for 495 yards and two scores.
The Gators are coming off of a bye week getting ready for the October 30th game against #1 Georgia.
The Bulldogs have a historically good defense. They are the top-rated defense in the nation in yards and points. They give up an average of 6.6 points per game, the only team that holds opponents under double digits.
Florida ranks 9th nationally in total offense, averaging 502 yards per game and 34.4 points. I don’t think they have a chance to perform like that against UGA.
They rank 38th in total defense and they give up 134.4 rushing yards per game. Running the ball is Georgia’s strength.
Dan Mullen has not publicly said if he will make a change at quarterback. Last season the strength of the offense was the passing game led by quarterback Kyle Trask and tight end Kyle Pitts. This season they lack an identity.
They are no longer ranked following the loss to LSU. They will be underdogs for the Georgia game. They will have to limit penalties and turnovers to have a chance to win. The offense will have to produce which is a lot to ask.
This is a rivalry game so strange things can happen but anybody with eyes has to pick UGA to win this game.
Jason Bishop Show w Kipp Branch October 23
