ATHENS, Ga. – If Georgia left guard Solomon Kindley returns to the starting lineup Saturday for the first time since injuring his ankle against Notre Dame, the 6-foot-4, 335-pounder will be right in the middle of what could be one of the top strength-versus-strength collisions of the college football season.
The No. 8 Bulldogs will travel to Jacksonville with the offensive tackle tandem of Andrew Thomas, a 6-5, 320-pounder on the left side, and Isaiah Wilson, a 6-7, 340-pounder on the right side. The No. 6 Florida Gators will counter with the edge-rushing duo of 6-3, 263-pound Jonathan Greenard and 6-4, 246-pound Jabari Zuniga.
“That’s going to be a very good matchup,” Kindley said. “Our guys are accepting that challenge, and they’re going to be ready for it. They like to gamble a lot, and when they gamble we can’t make any mistakes.
“We’ve got to play the best ball we can, because we know what they’re good at, and we know what they’re aiming for.”
Thomas and Wilson are the bookends of a Georgia front that has allowed just 20 yards in sacks, the fewest of any Bowl Subdivision team. The Gators, meanwhile, opened this season with a 10-sack performance in a victory over Miami, setting a single-game school standard, and will arrive at TIAA Bank Field having amassed 58 tackles for loss, 29 sacks and 12 interceptions.
The disruptive force that has been Florida’s defense is headed by Greenard and Zuniga, who have combined for 12 tackles for loss and seven sacks despite missing the 38-27 win at South Carolina with ankle injuries.
“We understand what we have when we’re all healthy,” Greenard told reporters this week. “We have the best defense in the country.”
Georgia’s offensive line began this season regarded as the best in the nation, but a 20-17 upset loss to visiting South Carolina on Oct. 12 took shine off an otherwise solid start. The Gamecocks accounted for three of the four sacks that the Bulldogs have yielded this season, and they intercepted Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm three times.
Fromm never had attempted more than 40 passes in a game but threw it a whopping 51 times during that loss.
“We were able to pressure with four guys, and I think that’s a key when you play him,” South Carolina coach Will Muschamp said. “He’s a great football player and is really smart. He is very accurate with the football. We had good coverage at times, and he was still able to throw the football in there.
“We made some plays on the ball and mixed some things up, and having an off week before them helped us, obviously, to be able to work on some things and have a little bit more time, but being able to rush four guys is key.”
The loss to the Gamecocks left Bulldogs offensive linemen experiencing a feeling they were not expecting.
“There definitely was a difference in their defensive line, especially from last year, with the way they came off the ball and the way they fought,” right guard Ben Cleveland said. “We always talk about six seconds to strain, and they were going until the whistle blew, and that’s what great defensive lines do.”
Said Thomas: “We just didn’t come out and execute. When we play South Carolina, we know they’re going to have a good, physical front. They just played better than us.”
Executing will be paramount for the Bulldogs against Florida, both from a rushing and a protection standpoint. The team that rushes for the most yards has won 13 consecutive Georgia-Florida games, though last season’s difference was just 189-170 in Georgia’s 36-17 win.
The most disruptive team obviously betters itself as well, with the Bulldogs having collected two Gators fumbles and an interception last season while playing turnover-free.
Florida’s defense under second-year coordinator Todd Grantham is the only FBS program nationally to collect at least three interceptions in three separate games this season. The 44 takeaways by the Gators since the start of last season rank second nationally to Syracuse’s 45, with that kind of success due to their effectiveness at every level.
Beginning with their pressure up front.
“They do a great job of rushing with their four guys, and that allows them to do more coverage-wise,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “They’ve got some alternative pressures and different looks, kind of like we do defensively, where it might look like pressure but it’s not. It’s called simulated pressure, but they don’t have to do that as much because of the four guys they’ve got rushing, especially the two guys on the edge who are really elite when it comes to pass rush.
“They do a really good job of that, and those guys get after the passer as good as anybody in the country. It’s obvious with their statistics.”
Odds and ends
Smart said following Tuesday’s practice that graduate transfer receiver Lawrence Cager and sophomore cornerback Tyson Campbell have been practicing and are cleared to play Saturday. Smart on the NCAA voting Tuesday to allow student-athletes to earn benefits for the use of their name, image and likeness: “Our biggest concern as coaches across the country is whether it’s going to be an even playing field. If it comes out balanced state to state, then we’re all on the same field.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.