If Georgia is to repeat its 2007 victory over Florida when the two teams meet this Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville, the Bulldog defense will have to once again be the dictators to the Gator offense. Last year, Georgia was the only team to not surrender a 10 or more yard rushing attempt to Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, as the Bulldogs had their share of moments defensively.
“I think it [was] the speed that we played at, the tempo we played at,” said Bulldog defensive coordinator Willie Martinez.
In fairness, Tebow was playing with a heavily bruised right non-throwing shoulder against Georgia, as the Gators offense put up only 23 points in their 42-30 loss. That is “only” 23, because Florida, as a team, has scored 45 or more points in 11 of its last 20 games. Because of their potency, some teams may shy away from blitzing the Gators. Martinez says blitzing Florida does create some unique challenges, but that does not mean a team should not do it. “It’s a danger in when you do it because they have the option in their offense. They have misdirection in their offense,” Martinez said. “It’s like any other game. You pick and choose when you’re going to do it, but [executing] the defense is going to be more important than whether we pressure or not.”
What the Bulldogs will probably want to execute is making the leader of Florida’s spread option attack, Tebow, make decisions that are least harmful to Georgia’s defense. In any type of option offense, everything starts with the quarterback and down and distance will be a big factor in what Tebow and the Bulldog defense will want to do. While having the ball in his hands on every play automatically means he is a threat on every play, Tebow is more dangerous on some downs and distances. “He’s still running the ball on all the downs, especially the short yardage ones,” Martinez said.
What makes this game different from last year, besides a healthier Tebow, is that this season Florida’s offense has added a few more weapons around him, meaning that forcing the reigning Heisman Trophy winner’s hand has gotten more difficult. When Tebow hands off to freshmen speedsters Jeffrey Demps and Chris Rainey, Georgia defenders will have to take better angles and show better tackling skills than what was on display last week at LSU. “We’re going to try our best. Those guys are fast,” said Georgia safety CJ Byrd.
Demps, who set a world junior record with a 10.01 100-meter dash this past summer, leads Florida with 357 rushing yards, while averaging an unheard of 11.9 yards per carry. Rainey, who reportedly has beaten Demps in a foot race, is second on the team in rushing with 322 yards (6.6 ypc). As if those two are not enough, another player has caught the eye of Byrd. “No. 25 (Brandon James), he’s just like (Percy) Harvin,” Byrd said. “Runs just as fast.”
And then there’s Harvin. The wide receiver, who doubles as a running back, was Florida’s leading rusher against Georgia last year (10 carries, 97 yards) and has rushed for 212 yards and three touchdowns this season while leading Florida in receiving. “He’s dangerous when he has the ball in his hands,” Martinez said. “Whether you’re throwing it to him or handing it to him, he’s a tremendous player.”
While Florida has a star quarterback and a lot of speed surrounding him, stopping the Gators passing game is still secondary to stopping the run. If the Bulldogs can force Tebow to keep the ball when he does not want to and hand the ball off when he does not want to, that will not only limit Florida’s run game, but affect their success in the air as well. “I think the majority of their [passing] success has been off the play-action, off the run game,” Martinez said.
As for Georgia’s offense, a perfect day would be for a fast and aggressive Bulldog defense to make the Gators uncomfortable, limiting crispness and thus keeping Florida from lighting up the scoreboard. “Our is defense is going to be up for the challenge,” said Georgia wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi. “They’re going to play the best they can and we’re going to try and do our part on offense.”
But if the Georgia defense is unable to slow down Florida’s offense, will the Bulldog offense be able to keep up? “Every time we get the ball we’re just trying to put points on the board, no matter what the situation is,” said Bulldog wide receiver Michael Moore. “Obviously if they score a quick 14 points we’re going to try and match them. But there’s not any added pressure.”
Georgia is coming off of a 52-point performance against LSU in which the offense was responsible for 38 of those points. The Bulldogs had failed to score more than 30 points in their five previous games. Last year, after scoring 14 in a loss to Tennessee and 20 in a win against Vanderbilt, Georgia exploded for 42 points against Florida. That was the start of three straight 40-point games and five out of six games in which the Bulldogs scored more than 31 points. Georgia has reason to believe that the offense is ready to go on a similar run this year. “We’re blocking better up front, very similar to a year ago where we had a bunch of freshmen playing,” said Georgia head coach Mark Richt. “It started out kind of slow, but as the season went on they got better and that’s what’s happening this year.”
Added Moore, “Kind of like how last year our offense started gaining steam towards the end of the season, same thing this year. We’re starting to hit that middle of the season, towards the end, and our offense is really starting to click now.”
If the game is a shootout, the Bulldog receivers have confidence that they can make plays against a physically gifted Florida secondary. “Last week, I felt, prepared us more for this game than anything, because we played against some bigger corners, some faster corners,” Moore said. “This week, the same thing. They’re athletic. All of them can run. All of them can hit. They’re real physical. As long as we make plays we can keep them on their toes.”
While Matthew Stafford and the Georgia receivers will likely be a huge factor if the contest is a shootout, tailback Knowshon Moreno may be able to possibly keep the game from going in such a direction. Moreno rushed for 188 yards and three touchdowns on a career-high 33 carries against the Gators last year, as Georgia had a five-minute advantage in time of possession, thus limiting the chances Florida’s offense had to impact the game. However, despite still being relatively young, Florida’s defense has played much better this year. It ranks No. 1 in the SEC in scoring defense (11.86) and No. 3 in total defense (273.43). One reason for that is the continued outstanding play from linebacker Brandon Spikes. “He’s a big-time hitter, he’s got great mobility,” Richt said. “You can see he’s definitely a leader for them. He definitely makes them go on defense.”
Florida will undoubtedly try and feature the 6-foot-3, 243-pound Spikes to slow down Moreno and the Bulldogs’ ground attack. Whether or not the Gators’ plan for Moreno will be successful will have a great bearing on the game, just as whether or not Georgia’s ability to dictate the action to Tebow will. The matchup sets up as a championship game, as a chance to win the SEC East is on the line. “The winner of the game has control of the East, the loser loses it,” Richt said. “One of the biggest goals we have, the most tangible goal that we have, the most controllable goal that we have, is whether or not we win the Eastern Division, so that’s at stake.”
Perhaps, more importantly for Georgia fans, it is another opportunity to beat Florida. With last year’s touchdown celebration aside, the Bulldog Nation has reason to be excited about how the rivalry has played out recently. “Winning the game last year was big,” Richt said. “We’ve won two out of the last four and we won the last game.”
Georgia has a good shot of making it two in a row and three out of the last five, but getting Florida’s offense out of sync is the key. Because of the celebration, the Bulldogs also hold a mental edge. Florida is the team that eagerly wants revenge (maybe too eagerly) and Georgia just looks at the contest as another big game. “It’s a business trip when we go down there,” Massaquoi said. “We’re going down there very focused.”
Look for the Bulldogs to keep that focus, giving them a chance for their first winning streak in the series since 1987-89.
Butler can be reached at jbutler@scoreatl.com.
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