Florida is coming off an open date and Georgia isn’t as the rivals head into this week’s showdown in Jacksonville, and Bulldogs coach Mark Richt is fine with that.
Georgia continued its rapid recovery from a 1-4 start Saturday night by building a 28-3 lead and cruising to a 44-31 win over Kentucky in Lexington. Sophomore tailback Washaun Ealey gained 157 yards on 28 carries and set a school record with five rushing touchdowns.
The Bulldogs also surpassed 40 points the previous two weeks in victories over Tennessee and Vanderbilt, so this marks the first time in 78 seasons as a Southeastern Conference member that they’ve scored 40 or more against three consecutive league foes.
“We’re on a pretty good roll right now, and we knew we were not going to have our open date until after 11 games,” Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said. “We’re kind of used to the grind, and we have had a good routine ever since the Monday prior to the Tennessee game, so we don’t plan to change much.”
Florida has defeated Georgia eight consecutive times when having the benefit of an open date the week before. The most recent examples took place during the 2005-06 seasons, when the Gators bounced back from road losses at LSU (’05) and Auburn (’06).