Top Dawg Take: Georgia is Closing the Gap with Alabama? Is Florida Closing the Gap on Georgia?8/10/2019 After the recent news of Brenton Cox transferring to the University of Florida, the Twitter world believes that Florida is closing the gap with Georgia. Florida fans are very excited about the talent and potential that Cox brings with him to Gainesville. The Gators finished third in the SEC East division after last season’s finish.
Florida for the past three years has been chasing the Dawgs on the football field and the recruiting trail. Ever since the arrival of Coach Kirby Smart, the Dawgs are 2-1 against the Gators. In those three matchups, the Dawgs have put up a combined score of 88 points to Florida’s 48 points scored. But the Gators believe the gap is closing. As we all know Georgia is not worried about any gap with any College Football team, then the one with Alabama. Back just three years ago it felt like we were three to four years behind the Tide. Then fast forward two years and it seems like we are a play away from the Tide. Alabama under Coach Nick Saban has done one thing very well since the start of their dynasty. That is recruiting, the Tide have rolled through the country looking for the best talent to add to their program. They are never satisfied with what they got. They had Jalen Hurts, who led the Tide to the National Championship game, and eventually lost to Clemson. The next year Alabama brought in the legend known as Tua Tagovailoa who ended up replacing Jalen Hurts who once again brought the Tide to the National Title game, only to be replaced at halftime after a bad first-half performance. Nick Saban is always looking to get better in every position and every part of the game. His non-stop recruiting has led to National Championships. Back in 2016, Georgia hired Kirby Smart, the former Defensive Coordinator for Nick Saban. Georgia fired the second-most winningest head coach in school history because they weren’t satisfied with 10 wins a year. Ever since then Smart has been molding the Dawgs into a National Championship contender, and in his fourth season, he is looking to mold them into a championship-winning team. After two recruiting classes in a row being top three, the Dawgs are closing that one play gap with Alabama. Florida finished last season with a 10-3 record under new Head Coach Dan Mullen. The Gators went 5-3 in conference play last season, which made them the third-best team in the SEC East. Florida lost all three games to a conference team those being, Kentucky, Georgia, and Missouri. The Gators ended their season with a win in the Peach Bowl, where they beat Michigan 41-15 in a beat down. The Gator fans ever since have proclaimed that they were “back.” They won a bowl game in which they blew out a top 25 team in the country. They went into the offseason swinging, and they weren’t shy to run their mouth. Even Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen started taking shots at Georgia during spring camp. All this newfound momentum couldn’t be used in their work on the recruiting trail, as the Gators failed to recruit a five star to enroll on campus. It has been four years since Florida has ever recruited a five star and successful got him to Florida. Florida ranked 9th nationally for the 2019 recruiting class. It was the highest they’ve been in a while. Their pride commitment was four-star defensive back Chris Steele from St. John Bosco High School. Steele ended up leaving the Gators after the spring because the Gators failed to find him a new roommate. It has been over a 1,000 days since the Gators last beat the Dawgs in a game. And even with the former five-star edge rusher enrolling at Florida, the gap still seems to be widening between the Dawgs and Gators. Georgia is continuing to recruit at a high level as they are bringing in more competition at every position every year, as they look to put the best team on the field for every game. Georgia is still looking for the team that will knock off the Tide and moves on to the National Championship game, and this time win it. Georgia has been winning key recruiting battles with the top programs in the nation ever since Smart took over. Smart is now putting those highly touted players to work in fall camp, as he is installing a championship mentality, of going 1-0 every week. Georgia has been a combined 10 points away from beating Alabama in the past two games. Georgia was two drives on offense and two stops on defense from beating the Tide. The standard for excellence at Georgia is no longer just beating our rivals, it is now competing for, and winning a National Championship. Georgia has shifted from the old mentality of beating rivals. Georgia has shifted to a championship mentality, something Florida has not. Which is why the gap has remained and is why we will see the Gators on Twitter talking trash, but we will not see their talk on the field because they haven’t closed the gap.
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Harrison Reno
Is the founder and author of Top Dawg Blogging. Harrison has been blogging for the past 4 years Archives
April 2020
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