Five things to know for Georgia-Florida in Jacksonville in 'Cocktail Party' game

Georgia and Florida clash in an SEC East matchup in a 3:30 p.m. CBS game Saturday in Jacksonville. Here are five things to know about the game.

Florida Gators start demanding finishing stretch for Georgia football

Brock Bowers referred to it as a “reset” for Georgia’s season.

The tight end's plans last weekend during the Bulldogs' open date included going to the Georgia Rodeo concert at the Athens Fairground headlined by country artist Riley Green, hunting and playing golf.

Rivalry ties: How Kirby Smart helped Billy Napier get an Alabama job 

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It was some relaxation before a five-game finish to the regular season for No. 1 Georgia that starts with Florida Saturday and includes games with No. 3 Tennessee and No. 17 Kentucky and a road trip to Mississippi State.

“We haven’t played the caliber of teams we’re going to play,” coach Kirby Smart said on his radio show last Thursday.

Four of the top 6 teams on Georgia’s regular season schedule are in the next four weeks, according to ESPN’s SP+ ratings: No. 5. Tennessee, No 13. Kentucky. No. 19. Mississippi State and No. 31. Florida.

Georgia beat No. 8 Oregon and No. 30 South Carolina who since their losses to the Bulldogs are a combined 10-0 after losing to Georgia by a combined 97-10.

Smart said the staff spent morning and evenings of the bye week working on game plans for the remaining regular season games. Staff members gave a presentation on what an opponent is doing new from their offseason study.

“We sit down as coaches and say, 'Alright, what do we need to do to win the next five games, six games?'" Smart said. “We target that area and really focus on our weaknesses and trying to strengthen our strong points.”

The team worked on concepts that are different than what it's seen in their first seven games or from their own practices.

“I tell them all the time 10 percent of your practice time will be on a future opponent, the other 90 on us and what we need,” Smart said of the bye week.

Outside linebacker Nolan Smith brought up preparing for Tennessee and Mississippi State.

“Last year we took a step ahead during this bye week and hopefully we do it this year,” Smith said.

Smart wasn’t concerned about Georgia looking ahead to a much-hyped game with the unbeaten Volunteers next week.

“Yeah, this is the Georgia-Florida matchup,” he said. “I don't think you have to worry about that. I might understand if it was a non-conference or an FCS opponent, but that's not going to be the case on Florida.”

About the future of Georgia Bulldogs-Florida Gators in Jacksonville

Bulldogs quarterback Stetson Bennett is set to start in his third Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville. That’s just 80 miles from his South Georgia hometown of Blackshear where he grew up a Bulldogs fan.

Bennett knows all about the tradition of the game played in Northeast Florida starting in 1933, but the idea of playing the game on campuses intrigues him.

“You know, the grass is always greener,” he said. “It would be cool to play in Gainesville. It's hard to say, I don't really know what it would mean for Jacksonville, Athens, Gainesville, this city and all that stuff. It would be cool to play down there. As far as permanently, I don't know."

The game is locked in to be played at TIAA Bank Field for next season as well with an option for the schools to extend the deal through the 2025 season.

Smart has voiced playing the game on the campuses to have a chance to host recruits at a home game.

The schools issued a joint statement Monday: “We will consider a multitude of factors including tradition, finances, future SEC scheduling models with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, and what is best for both schools’ football programs overall.”

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said in May he’d like to see the game continue in Jacksonville where it’s been played every year since 1933 except 1994 and 1995 due to stadium renovations. He said this summer that in conversations he’s had that Georgia seemed committed to keeping the game in Jacksonville.

Georgia’s revenue exceeds $2 million more a year for playing the game in Jacksonville than it would if the game were home-and-home. There is an additional guarantee of $1.5 million for both 2024 and 2025 under the current deal.

“When it comes down to it, there's a very, very basic element of everything comes back to, number one money and number two, recruiting and getting good players,” Smart said. “I firmly believe that we'll be able to sign better players by having it as a home-and-home because we'll have more opportunities to get them to campus. But, I also think there's a financial factor that factors into that, with having the game there, and being able to make more money for the university, possibly, there. You have to weigh both those and make really good decisions.”

The economic impact for the City of Jacksonville is more than $30 million, according to figures released in 2019.

Georgia pass rushers need to get home fast

In Tim McGraw’s 2004 country hit “Live Like You Were Dying,” he sings about riding a bull named Fu Manchu for 2.7 seconds.

That’s the same length of time on average it takes opposing quarterbacks to get rid of the ball against Georgia’s defense.

“We talk about it every day,” said Smith, who has 3 of Georgia’s 7 sacks this season. “They’ve been getting the ball out I think an average of 2.7 seconds. That’s really fast.”

Georgia is last in the SEC and 124th nationally with an average of one sack per game. Florida is giving up the fewest sacks per game in the SEC at 0.71 which ranks fifth nationally.

Smith said opposing teams that take more deep shots will give Georgia’s pass rushers more time to get to them.

“If we can’t sack them, then affect them,” he said. “We can’t really get frustrated. We’ve just got to keep working. That’s what me and (Robert) Beal harp on. If we can’t get sacks, let’s affect them. Get out hands up, make them feel like the pocket is really condensed, make them feel like we’ve been breathing on them all night.”

Smart said his staff did a game-by-game breakdown that showed quarterbacks are getting the ball out faster than it ever has against his defenses at this point of the season.

“We've played teams that have gotten rid of the ball really, really quick,” he said. “I mean, the Auburn game was the only game that was over three seconds per pass and I think that factors in the scrambles, where he would run around with the ball and throw it away. So, there hasn't been a lot of opportunities, but that doesn't mean that we can't do a better job. You have to get there in 2.6 seconds or you have to affect the throw, and we've had several really good rushes where we affected throws in terms of bull, batting balls. And I'm saying bull as in bull rush to get someone to the quarterback to affect his throw. But it's tough to be where we are sack-wise and we're just not getting a lot of opportunities.”

Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson (391 rushing yards, 6 rushing touchdowns) is a threat as a runner at 6-foot-3 and 232 pounds.

"He is a physical runner.,” nose guard Zion Logue said. “He loves to stiff arm. He loves to make guys look silly on film. We’ve got to rally to him and put a hat on him.. …We know we have to keep him in a rut and keep him in a cage. We have trap him on the left side. We know he wants to get to his right so doing little things like that to keep him in the pocket and let our guys cover."

Smart said Richardson is hurting teams most on scrambles.

“It's the draws, the converted runs, where he takes off that he’s really elite at,” Smart said. “I mean, they've got some 60 and 70 yard runs that you might say is a designed run, but it's not. It makes it really hard to defend, because most coaches try to defend the pass by covering people and the worst thing you can do sometimes is cover everybody and this guy take off because it puts your defense all spread out around the field.”

Gators hurting on third down on defense

Florida has spent the last two weeks trying to find answers for its easily penetrable third-down defense. The Gators are second to last in all of the FBS with opponents converting on 52.6 percent of the time, ahead of only Colorado.

“There’s no magic pill or no secret potion here,” coach Billy Napier said. “I think there’s a lot of contributing factors that we’re in the middle of trying to make some adjustments there.”

The bad news is that Georgia is ninth in the nation in converting on third down at 52.4 percent.

Napier called his defense “inconsistent.”

“At times this year we’ve played good defense and then at times we’ve not played good defense, right?” Napier said. “Overall, the things that we can control are the things we’re focused on—fundamentals, communications, alignment and certainly playing good team defense, being on the same page on the first, second and third level and then finishing.”

In Florida's last two losses, LSU went 8 of 12 on third down and Tennessee was 6 of 9.

Bennett has had two weeks to let a banged-up shoulder get better since the last game. It was injured against Missouri on Oct. 1.

"It got a little banged up against Missouri, it got hit a little bit," he said. "Auburn a little shaky. Going into Vandy it felt like I was healing up a bit and i feel better now. Bye week helped out."

From Georgia to Florida and other connections

Georgia will go up against a pair of contributors on Florida’s defense who used to wear the red and black.

‘Jack’ linebacker Brenton Cox will go up against the Bulldogs for the third time after registering six tackles and a tackle for loss against them in two games. He played in the game for Georgia in 2018 and sat out in 2019 after transferring midway through the season.

Redshirt sophomore Jalen Kimber entered the transfer portal two days after the national championship win. The cornerback played in one game last season for Georgia before undergoing shoulder surgery.

“I’ve got a great relationship with J-bug,” safety Chris Smith said. “He was with us last year. Brenton Cox, too. Things happen. Guys aren’t on the team like they used to be, but you keep that great relationship if you had a good relationship with those players.”

Kimber has 7 tackles, a pass breakup and an interception returned for a touchdown in backup role. He was beaten on a touchdown pass against LSU.

“Jalen has done well,” Napier said. “He had some big plays earlier in the year. He’s played through injuries. He’s showed some toughness and loyalty to the team and certainly a young player who has a lot of opportunity to improve and develop.”

Florida’s staff also includes assistant athletic director of recruiting Katie Turner who served as director of recruiting operations the last two seasons at Georgia as well as two who were on Georgia’s 2015 staff under Mark Richt: offensive coordinator/line coach Rob Sale and director of strength and conditioning Mark Hocke.

They worked at Alabama when Smart was defensive coordinator as did wide receivers coach Keary Colbert. Tight ends coach William Peagler was a graduate assistant at Georgia in 2017.

“I know a lot of guys on his staff,” Smart said.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Five things to know for Georgia-Florida: Gauntlet ahead, sacks & more