Georgia Bulldogs
Let’s Agree To Disagree
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The annual rivalry between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Florida Gators is unquestionably one of (some would argue the single best) best rivalries in college football.
That is one of the very few things that the two teams and fanbases can agree on.
They don’t agree on the name. If you’re dawned in red and black, it’s the Georgia/Florida game. If you’re dressed head to toe in orange and royal blue, it’s the Florida/Georgia game. They certainly don’t agree on who the better team or players are and heck, they don’t even agree on when the first game is!
In the history books in Athens, Georgia recognizes the first matchup with Florida took place in Macon, Georgia way back in 1904. Georgia ended up with the victory with a final score of 52-0.
The only problem was that contest wasn’t against what we know as the Florida program. The 1904 meeting saw the Dawgs square off against the “University of Florida Blue and White” that was based out of Lake City, FL (about 45 miles north of Gainesville) and had been known as in the years prior as Florida Agriculture College. This institution was one of four predecessors to the modern-day University of Florida in Gainesville.
The current University of Florida was officially established in 1905 and created a football team beginning in 1906 (almost 2 years after what Georgia claims as the first meeting). The current Florida Gators athletics records don’t include games played by predecessor institutions.
Georgia, however, is adamant that the game counts. Georgia historian and former tennis coach Dan Magill told author of the book “I Love Georgia/I Hate Florida,” Patrick Garbin that “That’s where Florida was back then. We can’t help it if they got run out of Lake City.”
While Florida doesn’t claim the first game in the series against Georgia, the University of Florida does claim traces back to the 1850s on their UF website:
“The University of Florida traces its beginnings to 1853 when the state-funded East Florida Seminary acquired the private Kingsbury Academy in Ocala. After the Civil War, the seminary was moved to Gainesville. It was consolidated with the state’s land-grant Florida Agricultural College, then in Lake City, to become the University of Florida in 1905 and the Gainesville site for the campus was chosen in 1906. Classes began on September 26, 1906, for 102 students.”
The first mutually agreed upon contest took place in Jacksonville on a mid-October afternoon in 1915. The result wasn’t quite as lopsided but resulted in a Georgia convincing win over Florida 37-0.
It took thirteen years for Florida to notch their first victory in the budding rivalry, defeating Georgia 26-6 in 1928.
The two teams have met every year since 1926 aside from the 1943 season when Florida didn’t field of team due to World War II
Although the first mutually agreed game was in Jacksonville, it wasn’t until 1933 when the city became the official home for the game and has been the home for all but two (1994 and 1995) since that 1933 meeting.
So, when the stadium is divided and the 104th meeting (or 103rd depending on which camp you’re in) kicks off, remember the history runs deep. The history of passion, football and not agreeing on anything…not even when the hate started.
Jason Bishop Show October 23 2025
G-Day
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Georgia Bulldogs recently played the G-Day Spring game. That is significant because some programs like Nebraska have chosen not to play a spring game.
With the transfer portal some teams say that causes other programs to poach players. That is why the UGA spring game was not televised.
This game featured the Red Team (No. 1 offense/second team defense) against the Black Team (No. 1 Defense/second team offense). The Red Team won 34-17. The announced attendance for the game was 35,003.
The offense had 88 pass attempts and just 44 rushing attempts. Gunner Stockton took every rep with the first-team offense in the first half. Defenders aren’t able to hit the quarterback, while it often plays very vanilla coverage and rarely blitzes.
Projected starting quarterback Gunner Stockton passed for 309 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception and he completed 50% of his pass attempts.
Backup QB Ryan Puglisi had 49 pass attempts. He was inconsistent but he did throw a touchdown pass to Colbie Young on his first chance playing with the starting offense. He did throw an interception that was picked off by Dominick Kelly shortly before halftime.
Third-string quarterback Colter Ginn led a touchdown drive to start the second half. He threw a seven-yard TD to London Humphrey’s.
“Some good and bad for both, but that’s the way spring games go,” Kirby Smart said. “We’ve got to play some loose plays, throw the ball around, got to do some two-minute.
Excited about the guys that got to play. We’ve got a lot of work to do in terms of offseason and getting ourselves where we need to be for next year, but a lot of the mid-years got valuable minutes. I can remember when mid-years kind of went with the threes and fours, and now it seems like more of them are going with the twos.
“That’s just the way of college football right now.”
The defensive backs looked good in this game. Daniel Harris prevented a deep pass to Noah Thomas on the opening drive. He intercepted Stockton in the end zone later in the first quarter.
The leading receiver for the first-team offense was Dillon Bell. He had 5 receptions for 78 yards. He also had a 13-yard rush to showcase how versatile he is. Junior London Humphreys had 4 receptions, 77 yards and 2 touchdowns.
“London’s very smart,” Smart said of Humphreys after the scrimmage. “He doesn’t have a lot of anxiety, he’s very mature, and he’s good for those kids in that (group) because he works really hard.”
Kicker Peyton Woodring made field-goal attempts of 44 and 35 yards. Liam Badger made a 23-yard field goal.
The offensive line was missing Monroe Freeling and Daniel Calhoun, as both recover from injury.
The defensive line is very young and they were in a tough position dealing with 88 pass attempts. They lost a lot of talent to the upcoming 2025 NFL draft so they need to gain more experience.
“We (have) got to get better,” said Smart when asked about all the redshirt freshmen playing on the offensive and defensive lines.
The Bulldogs will open the 2025 season August 30th at home against Marshall.
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Hall Of Fame
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The city of Jacksonville announced on Tuesday that Bill Goldberg, the former University of Georgia defensive tackle who helped the Bulldogs win three of four games against the Gators, will be among the 2024 inductees into the game’s Hall of Fame.
Goldberg will be inducted with Florida cornerback Fred Weary, a Mandarin High graduate, former Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Mike Peterson, and UGA cornerback Mike Fischer of Jacksonville, a Bolles graduate.
Goldberg was a two-time All-SEC player and lettered four years for the Dawgs from 1986-1989. He’s still ninth in Georgia history with 348 tackles.
But when injuries curtailed his NFL career after stops with the Los Angeles Rams and Atlanta Falcons, Goldberg dropped his first name and became one of the dominant professional wrestlers with a career of more than two decades that culminated with his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2018.
Using moves such as “The Spear” and “The Jackhammer,” Goldberg was a five-time world champion in World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment and at one point was reputed to have gone on a 173-0 streak.
He wrestled competitively off and on from 1997-2018 and also has dabbled in mixed martial arts and acting. He appeared in Adam Sandler’s remake of “The Longest Yard” and was a contestant on “Celebrity Apprentice.”
Fisher, who began his college career at Furman, transferred to Georgia as a walk-on and earned a scholarship in 1978. He played on three Georgia teams that went 3-0 against the Gators from 1978-1980 and had an interception against the Gators in the 1979 and two in 1980.
Fred Weary played for the Gators from 1994-1997 and was on three winning teams against Georgia, including the two games that were played on the campuses in 1994-1995 when UF won by combined scores of 104-31.
Weary had 15 career interceptions to lead Florida, six in his senior season. He was first-team All-SEC.
Weary played six years in the NFL, for New Orleans, Atlanta and the St. Louis Rams. He had seven interceptions as a pro.
Mike Peterson, a Gainesville native who played high school football at Alachua Santa Fe, stayed home to play for the Gators and was on three teams that beat the Bulldogs in four years from 1995-1998. Peterson had 249 tackles in four seasons and also was first-team All-SEC.
Weary and Peterson both started for the Gators’ first national championship team under Steve Spurrier in 1996.
Peterson played in the NFL for 14 years, with Indianapolis, the Jaguars and Atlanta. He had 883 tackles and 19 interceptions. He is currently on the Florida coaching staff.
The History
By: Michael Spiers
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Georgia-Florida rivalry is one of the oldest and most exciting matchups in all of college football.
Every year, when the University of Georgia Bulldogs are scheduled to face off against the University of Florida Gators, it’s a game both fanbases circle on their calendars.
The two teams have been meeting for over a century, and while Georgia claims the rivalry started in 1904, Florida doesn’t count that game.
That’s because the 1904 Florida team wasn’t from the university as we know it today—it was from a predecessor school, Florida Agricultural College. The official start, according to both schools, was in 1915 when Georgia shut out Florida 37-0.
The game has almost always been played in Jacksonville, Florida, since the 1930s, and it’s become a huge part of the River City’s culture.
Jacksonville was originally picked as a neutral site because it’s between the two schools, and before Interstate 95, it was easier to get to with the modes of transportation available at the time.
Now, it’s an annual event that draws thousands of fans to the city, with plenty of tailgating and partying that turns the weekend into a big celebration. The game itself brings in millions of dollars to Jacksonville’s economy, making it a win for the city as well.
What makes this rivalry unique is that there isn’t a traditional trophy like in other famous matchups. Instead, the winning team takes home a staff made from a tree in the Okefenokee Swamp, which is on the Georgia-Florida border. Right now, that staff is in Georgia’s possession.
Over the years, the game has seen some wild moments. It’s even earned the nickname “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” because of how rowdy the tailgates and celebrations can get.
Fans have been known to party hard, and in the past, things got a little too crazy. In the 1980s, after some alcohol-fueled incidents, including fans tearing down goalposts, Jacksonville had to crack down on the party atmosphere to keep things under control.
They even stopped using the “Cocktail Party” nickname officially, but the fun hasn’t really gone away.
On the field, Georgia dominated the early years, winning most of the games up until the 1950s. Florida didn’t start to gain ground until the ’50s, and the rivalry really heated up when Steve Spurrier became Florida’s head coach in 1990.
Under Spurrier and his successors, Florida went on a tear, winning most of the games in the ’90s and early 2000s. In the last 15 years, though Georgia has won the last three years in a row, the two teams have been more evenly matched.
This game often plays a big role in determining who comes out on top in the SEC East.
Both Georgia and Florida have historically been strong contenders in their division of the conference, so the winner has commonly had a better shot at making it to the SEC Championship.
The rivalry isn’t just a big deal for the teams and their fans; it’s huge for Jacksonville.
The city goes all out to make the weekend special, and it’s a major boost to the local economy.
The game has been played at EverBank Field, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, since the old Gator Bowl stadium was torn down in the ’90s.
EverBank offers a modern, NFL-style experience for the thousands of fans who pack it every year.
Despite occasional talk about moving the game to the teams’ home stadiums, it has remained in Jacksonville.
Both schools seem happy to keep it that way, but planned renovations to EverBank Stadium starting in 2026 will force a relocation for at least a couple of years, before a hopeful return to Jacksonville in 2028.
The city offers a big payout to the teams, and the fans love the neutral site tradition.
In the end, Georgia-Florida isn’t just a football game—it’s a massive event that people from all over look forward to every year.
Whether you’re a diehard fan or just there for the tailgate, it’s a rivalry that holds a special place in college football.
College Football Progress Reports
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
We are only a few weeks into the college football season but we have learned about some of the prominent teams around the country.
It’s a little too early for report cards but we can make progress reports for some of the programs around the Southeast.
Georgia: The Dawgs are 3-0, which is good. They beat up on #14 Clemson 34-3 to start the season. The biggest take away from that game was the Tigers are not very good.
They followed that up by beating FCS Tennessee Tech 48-3. Last weekend they struggled at Kentucky and won 13-12. These are the same Wildcats that lost 31-6 to South Carolina the week before. I think UGA will be fine but the next test comes September 28 at Alabama.
Grade: A-
Alabama: Nick Saban is gone and Kalen DeBoer has stepped in. The Crimson Tide have beaten Western Kentucky, USF and Wisconsin. The South Florida game was close in the first half but they won 42-16.
These wins are not impressive but the schedule will get harder. We will learn a lot about this team when they play Georgia.
Grade: A
Tennessee: This has to be the most surprising team in my opinion. Redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava stepped in as the starter and he looks like a Heisman candidate.
The Vols started the season with FCS Chattanooga and won 69-3. They played #23 NC State in Charlotte and won 51-10. Last weekend they demolished Kent State 71-0.
Grade: A+
Miami: Are the Hurricanes back? We seem to ask this question every few years. They opened the season at Florida and won 41-17. They followed that up with blow out victories against FCS Florida A&M and Ball State.
QB Cam Ward transferred in from Washington State and he’s playing great. Their next game is at USF. You can’t say I have something against the state of Florida with this grade.
Grade: A
Florida State: The wheels have completely fallen off in Tallahassee. They started last season 13-0 but have not recovered since losing the Orange Bowl.
The Seminoles came into the season ranked #10 and lost to Georgia Tech in Ireland. Then they dropped home games against Boston College and Memphis to fall to 0-3.
Mike Norvell’s seat is burning up right now.
Grade: F-
Florida: Speaking of hot seats, Billy Napier’s is in flames. Unlike Norvell, he has not had double-digit wins in Gainesville.
He actually has not had more than 6 wins in a season. We talked about the embarrassing loss to Miami earlier. They did beat FCS Samford for their lone win this season.
The Gators lost to Texas A&M at home 33-20 over the weekend. The score makes this game seem closer than it was. They travel to Mississippi State for their next game.
Grade: F
Georgia Tech: The Yellow Jackets are 3-1, which is better than most people expected them to start the season.
The wins are against FSU, Georgia State and VMI, an FCS team. The loss was at Syracuse, 31-28. I thought that was a game they were going to win. They play at #19 Louisville this week.
