There’s a monumental midterm exam coming for the Florida Gators on Saturday as they’ve studying up on ways to take the current kings of the college football world, the Georgia Bulldogs.
It’s set up to be the turning point of the season for head coach Billy Napier and his young squad. A victory over their arch-nemesis would move the Gators up in the SEC East race and keep hopes alive for a trip to Atlanta in December.
Analysts Benjamin Watson and former Gator Chris Doering discussed on SEC Football Final that there are three teams who control their own destiny: Missouri, Florida and Georgia.
According to the duo, a win or loss from any of those teams will change the trajectory of the remainder of the already chaotic season.
“They all control their own destiny,” Watson said. “I think if you looked at this maybe five, six weeks ago… we might not have picked these three teams. You pick Georgia, obviously, but you might not have picked Florida. You might not even be thinking Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee.
“But now you look at it you say, ‘Wow,'” Watson continued. “The next three weeks Georgia is gonna play Florida, which is going to be a tough game for both. They play in the Cocktail Party in Jacksonville, that’s always interesting down there and then they play Missouri.”
Missouri is riding into a BYE week before they travel to take on Georgia and then host Florida on Nov. 18.
Former Gators receiver Chris Doering says the top two teams in the SEC East are obviously between the Georgia Bulldogs and Missouri, but it’s difficult to truly measure the rest of the standings.
“How do you rank the rest of those teams?” Doering asked. “Florida is coming off that big win against South Carolina, you feel good about them, but oh, by the way, Kentucky just beat the hell out of them a few weeks before. Tennessee may be playing better than all those teams, but yet, Florida beat them back in September. So there’s still a lot of murkiness as it relates to how the hierarchy in the East stands.”
First things first, the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party has to commence to see if the almighty Bulldogs can stay on its throne for yet another week.
Kickoff between the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs is slated for 3:30 p.m. EDT and will broadcast on CBS Sports.
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