Tag: Florida Football News

Top-three quarterbacks Georgia will face in 2020

Here is our list of the top-3 quarterbacks Georgia will face this season.

Georgia players arrived on campus this month after the SEC voted to allow student-athletes back on campus for voluntary workouts starting June 8.

There are still concerns for the 2020 college football season revolving around the impact of COVID-19, but as far as we know, all signs point to football being played this fall.

The Bulldogs are coming off a 12-2 season in 2019, where they secured their third-straight SEC East title and dominated Baylor in the Sugar Bowl. Not a bad resume whatsoever, but in most Georgia fans’ minds, without a playoff bid and a blowout loss to LSU in Atlanta, the season was a disappointment.

To reach the college football playoff this season and play for another championship, Georgia will have to make improvements on the offensive side of the ball – and they have. Credit Kirby Smart and the Georgia coaching staff for bringing in former NFL offensive coordinator Todd Monken, and signing Wake Forest transfer quarterback Jamie Newman.

Defensively, Georgia is once again in great hands. The Bulldogs return most players from the record-breaking 2019 unit that was ranked No. 1 in rush defense and No. 1 in scoring defense. That said, the SEC East was not exactly a hot bed for quarterback talent in 2019, and Georgia will be facing more experienced signal callers in 2020. Here are the top-3 SEC quarterbacks the Bulldogs will play this season.

1. Kyle Trask – Florida

2019 Stats: 66.9% passing for 2,941 yards, 25 touchdowns and seven interceptions (63 carries for eight yards and four touchdowns).

Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Trask doesn’t take up much space in Georgia fans’ minds, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t. We all know how well Dan Mullen works with quarterbacks – Tebow, Prescott – so we should expect Trask to make better decisions in 2020 and Florida has plenty of talent to give the Bulldogs a game in Jacksonville.

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CFB magazine Lindy’s has Florida ahead of Georgia in preseason rankings

CFB magazine, Lindy’s, placed the Florida Gators ahead of Georgia football in their preseason rankings.

Lindy’s, which creates an annual preseason college football magazine, has released its top 25 for the 2020 season.

Georgia checked in at No. 7 in the rankings, which is the same spot that Athlon Sports, a Lindy’s competitor, had the Bulldogs.

Just like Athlon, though, Lindy’s had the Florida Gators ahead of the Dawgs.

Lindy’s ranked Florida No. 5. Athlon had the Gators at No. 6.

All the Florida love still does not make much sense to me, but it will also make it that much more enjoyable when Dan Mullen guides the Gators to a 9-3 season.

What has Florida done to be ranked ahead of Georgia? Finally come within three touchdowns of beating UGA last year?

Georgia returns the nation’s top defense, more than enough talent on offense, the No. 1 ranked recruiting class in the country and a Heisman hopeful at quarterback in Jamie Newman.

As far as the Florida hype goes…I’ll believe it when I see it.

Barrett Sallee picks Florida to win SEC East, projects Georgia record

CBS college football writer picks the Florida Gators to win the SEC East over Georgia football, as well as SEC records.

College football experts have already begun to submit their predictions for the 2020 season.

CBS Sport’s college football writer and analyst Barrett Sallee posted his SEC win total predictions for 2020 on Friday, via Twitter.

Sallee has Georgia as the 2nd team in the SEC East, with Florida as No. 1.  He also predicts the Dawgs to drop two games on the season, both being to SEC teams.

UGA has a rather tough schedule this season, playing Alabama away in Tuscaloosa. Georgia also has tough matchups against Auburn, Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky, all of which could be ranked meetings.

The Dawgs have won the past three matchups against the Florida Gators, and have a massive wave of new talent coming in with the No.1 recruiting class in the country for 2020.  Florida had the No. 9 2020 recruiting class.

The Gators and Bulldogs face off on Halloween (Oct. 31) this year in Jacksonville.

Athlon predicts Georgia record, final SEC standings — High on Florida

In Athlon Sports’ SEC season preview, the Florida Gators are 2020 SEC East champions over Georgia football. Details and the full list here.

Last week, Athlon Sports released a preview of its annual magazine, a look at the top 25 teams in college football and a prediction of the final college football rankings at the end of the 2020 season.

The 3-time defending SEC East champion Georgia Bulldogs didn’t get much love. Florida was projected to finish the season at No. 6, ahead of Georgia at No. 7.

“Georgia has an edge in overall roster talent,” Athlon Sports wrote. “But the Gators have a small advantage in crossover play (at home versus LSU compared to at Alabama for the Bulldogs) and coach Dan Mullen’s team has more continuity in staff and scheme.”

While I agree that at home versus LSU is not as challenging as Alabama on the road, “continuity in staff and scheme” is a reach. In 2019, Georgia rolled into Jacksonville with a new offensive coordinator and still scored 24 points and secured their third win in a row versus the Gators.

A new aspect of Athlon Sports’ magazine this year is its SEC season preview, and sticking with its previous predictions, Athlon has Florida as the 2020 SEC East champions over Georgia.

Athlon predicted the final SEC standings and projected each team’s overall record as well.

See here:

SEC East

#1 Florida, 11-2 overall, 7-1 SEC

#2 Georgia, 10-2 overall, 6-2 SEC

#3 Tennessee, 8-4 overall, 5-3 SEC

#4 Kentucky, 7-5 overall, 4-4 SEC

#5 South Carolina, 6-6 overall, 3-5 SEC

#6 Missouri, 5-7 overall, 2-6 SEC

#7 Vanderbilt, 3-9 overall, 0-8 SEC

SEC West

#1 Alabama, 12-1 overall, 7-1 SEC

#2 LSU, 10-2 overall, 6-2 SEC

#3 Texas A&M, 9-3 overall, 5-3 SEC

#4 Auburn 9-3, overall, 5-3 SEC

#5 Ole Miss, 7-5 overall, 4-4 SEC

#6 Mississippi State, 6-6 overall, 2-6 SEC

#7 Arkansas, 3-9 overall, 0-8 SEC

SEC Championship Game

Alabama over Florida

This year, Georgia has more offensive power behind transfer quarterback  Jamie Newman and new offensive coordinator Todd Monken, with a record-setting returning defense.

Georgia fans, don’t worry seeing Florida in the headlines. Jacksonville is our home-away-from-home and it always works things out.

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Ranking SEC head coaches heading into 2020 CFB season

We ranked all the SEC head coaches, from Georgia football’s Kirby Smart, to Arkansas’ Sam Pittman, to Florida’s Dan Mullen.

The SEC is loaded with head coaching talent as we head into the 2020 college football season.

You have your usuals – Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Gus Malzahn, Ed Orgeron, etc.

But then you have your familiar, or in some cases not-so-familiar, yet new faces: Lane Kiffin, Mike Leach, Sam Pittman, Eli Drinkwitz.

Ranking the SEC head coaches heading into the 2020 season is as hard as it’s ever been, and that’s because of all these new hirings. But it’s also because Jeremy Pruitt waited until October to start winning games in Tennessee last year. It’s because Ed Orgeron took a loaded roster and won a national title. Because Gus Malzahn and Auburn always have the talent but can’t seem to win the big ones. Or because, despite a 4-8 season, Will Muschamp was able to knock off Kirby Smart and Georgia.

Related: 2020 Georgia schedule with game-by-game score predictions

With all of this taken into consideration, here’s our SEC head coaching power rankings for the 2020 college football season:

14. Sam Pittman, Arkansas

I would have loved to get Pittman into a higher spot on this list, but what is there to go off of? His last head coaching job came in 1992 and 1993 when he led Hutchinson Community College to an 11–9–1 record over two seasons.

I am 100% rooting for Pittman to succeed in his first season as head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. It won’t be easy, and this is a team that will likely finish with at least five losses for the first few years, but that’s not necessarily a terrible thing as long as they play hard.

Arkansas may not field the most talented teams in the SEC, but if there’s one thing I’m certain of it’s that the former UGA O-Line coach will make sure his guys fight harder than anybody.

13. Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri

Drinkwitz gets the No. 13 spot because of what he was able to do at App State last year. In his first season as a head coach, he led the Mountaineers to a 12-1 record and a Sun Belt championship.

But that’s not the SEC. It’s going to be a rocky road ahead for Drinkwitz, as Mizzou will definitely not be one of the more talented teams in the league for a few years.

12. Derek Mason, Vanderbilt

I often find myself rooting for Vanderbilt and Mason.

He took over at Vandy when James Franklin left for Penn State, and though it’s been tough at times, you get the feeling that Commodore fans actually look forward to their seasons.

11. Will Muschamp, South Carolina

If Muschamp had not beaten Georgia last year, he maybe would not even be on this list at all.

But he won and that probably saved his job. He coaches up a good defense, but South Carolina will need to crank up its recruiting efforts if it wants to start contending in the SEC East. Another season with no bowl game may put an end to Muschamp’s head coaching career with the Gamecocks.

10. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss

Kiffin is a good football coach, there’s no denying that. No. 10 is pretty low for an offensive genius like him. But this conference is simply loaded.

Kiffin did a great job at Florida Atlantic, but I still need to see him win consistently at a Power 5 school.

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ESPN ranks top 25 CFB hires of past 25 years: As expected, no Georgia or Kirby Smart

ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg released his top 25 CFB hires of the last 25 years and Georgia football coach Kirby Smart was left off the list. 

ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg recently released his list of the top 25 college football hires of the last 25 years and Georgia football’s hiring of head coach Kirby Smart did not make the cut.

That’s to be expected, though. 25 years is a long time. And though Kirby Smart’s already a top-five coach in college football, he has not quite accomplished enough to crack that top-25.

Before Georgia fans get all riled up about this, I should point out that the most recent hiring on this list is Penn State’s landing of Bill O’Brien in 2012, and that’s dead last at No. 25. The second most recent is Urban Meyer to Ohio State, which happened in 2011 (that’s No. 5). In addition to Kirby Smart not making it, neither did Ed Orgeron at LSU or Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma.

Just like many in the football coaching landscape, Smart started as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Georgia, before moving on to Valdosta State, Florida State and LSU. Smart then spent some more time back at UGA, until moving on to the Miami Dolphins of the NFL and more notably, spent eight years in Tuscaloosa before taking the head coaching job at Georgia in 2016.

In his top 25 hires, Rittenberg said that tenure was a major factor as well as obviously the success at the program, but also what kind of situation the coach walked into. Although Smart has taken Georgia to new heights in terms of recruiting, facilities and overall success, he didn’t exactly walk into a dumpster fire in Athens. The Bulldogs had a 75% win percentage (40-13) in Mark Richt’s last four years at Georgia.

I think it’s a popular opinion that, with more time, Smart will be considered one of the top hirings in college football history. With the way he recruits, it’s just a matter of time before Georgia brings a National Championship home to Athens. You’d be hard pressed to find a college program and fan base that are dreaming of a title more than DawgNation.

SEC hirings on the list:

  • No. 1 – Nick Saban (twice, Bama / LSU)
  • No. 6 – Urban Meyer (twice, Florida / Ohio St.)
  • No. 19 – Gary Pinkel (Missouri)
  • No. 21 – James Franklin (Vanderbilt)
  • No. 23 – Steve Spurrier (South Carolina)

Athlon Sports releases 2020 CFB rankings: Projects Florida ahead of Georgia

Athlon Sports released its 2020 college football top-25 and projected the Florida Gators to finish above the Georgia Bulldogs.

Athlon Sports recently released its list of the top-25 college football teams going into the 2020 football season, saying the list specifically represents where they think these teams will finish the season.

From Athlon:

This is not a preseason ranking of teams going into the season. Instead, this ranking takes into account where we project teams to finish after the national championship in January

The SEC is represented six times. Alabama is at No. 2 behind projected national champion Clemson. LSU is at No. 8, Texas A&M No. 11 and Auburn at No. 13.

Most notably, Georgia, the three-time SEC East defending champion, is ranked at No. 7, behind Florida at No. 6.

Athlon Sports stated its reason for putting the Gators ahead of the Bulldogs, even though Florida hasn’t won in Jacksonville in three years, is because of the SEC crossover games and staff continuity.

“Georgia has an edge in overall roster talent,” Athlon Sports wrote. “But the Gators have a small advantage in crossover play (at home versus LSU compared to at Alabama for the Bulldogs) and coach Dan Mullen’s team has more continuity in staff and scheme.”

I suppose Athlon Sports has a point, a Joe Burrow-less LSU at home won’t be as tough as Alabama in Tuscaloosa. However, the SEC East runs through Jacksonville and Georgia has held the keys for the last three years.

And as far as continuity goes, the Bulldogs came into the 2019 season with a new offensive coordinator and still took care of business in Jacksonville.

Georgia and Florida meet this year on Halloween from TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida.

Here is Athlon Sports’ projected top-10 teams in college football for 2020:

Athlon Sports’ 2020 Projected top-10

#1 Clemson

#2 Alabama

#3 Ohio State

#4 Oklahoma

#5 Penn State

#6 Florida

#7 Georgia

#8 LSU

#9 Notre Dame

#10 Oregon

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FootballScoop predicts Georgia will be featured in two College GameDay matchups

Georgia football is projected to be featured in two College GameDay matchups this 2020 college football season.

I know, you’d rather be reading about which early-enrollees are turning heads at Georgia workouts. I’d rather be writing about that. Unfortunately, that’s not the world we are living in right now.

Instead, we are in a constant state of speculation, which can actually provide some entertaining stories like the one Zach Barnett of FootballScoop posted this week.

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He wrote a story predicting where ESPN’s College GameDay show will visit during each week of the 2020 college football season.

In his predictions, he had Georgia being involved in two College GameDay matchups.

The first one is a sure-thing…Georgia at Alabama on September 19 in Tuscaloosa.

From FootballScoop:

Speaking of sure things, Georgia at Alabama is perhaps the surest thing of the entire season. A rematch of the 2017 national championship and 2018 SEC title game, this game comes three days shy of the THIRTEEN YEAR anniversary of Georgia’s last trip to Tuscaloosa.

The other one is on Halloween, where Barnett predicts College GameDay will visit Jacksonville for the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Not a bad prediction, as both teams will likely be in the top-ten playing for a spot in the SEC Championship Game.

Florida has finished second to Georgia in the SEC East in each of Dan Mullen’s first two seasons and, with a returning quarterback in Gainesville and a new offense coming in Athens, there’s a belief that the Gators can climb the hump this year. Florida vs. Georgia will be the ultimate trick or treat for Mullen.

Athens, Georgia was also mentioned as a possible destination on October 6. The Bulldogs will be hosting Auburn in The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, but there’s also plenty of other top-tier matchups taking place that weekend.

October 6 matchups include: Texas-Oklahoma, Clemson-Florida State, LSU-Florida, Auburn-Georgia, Minnesota-Wisconsin, Iowa-Ohio State, Rutgers-Purdue.

Oklahoma vs Texas gets GameDay that weekend in his predictions.

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Former Florida Gators 4-star signee makes transfer decision

Florida Gators offensive lineman Issiah Walker has made his transfer decision.

Offensive tackle Issiah Walker signed with Florida as a 4-star recruit in the most recent (2020) recruiting cycle, however, announced last week that he would be transferring before ever playing a game for the Gators.

On Saturday, Walker announced he will be transferring to Miami, staying in-state.

Walker played high school football at Norland in Miami, Florida. His transfer continues Florida’s trend of struggling to lock down top talent in the Sunshine State.

Whether or not Walker will be forced to sit-out the 2020 season is unknown. NCAA transfer rules state he will, but we’ve seen crazier things happen.

Florida fans may try to brush off another transfer, but the Gators losing another offensive lineman isn’t going to help them rush for more than 21 yards next time they face Georgia.

 

 

Donovan McMillon includes Georgia football in top-10

UGA football recruiting: Georgia Bulldogs make top-10 for elite recruit Donovan McMillon.

Georgia has made the top-ten for the 200th ranked player in the nation, Donovan McMillon.

McMillon holds 53 scholarship offers but was able to cut that list to ten on Friday.

A 4-star safety in the class of 2021 out of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, McMillon’s top-ten schools are as follows:

Georgia, Florida, LSU, Texas A&M, Arizona State, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State and Virginia Tech.

He ranks as the nation’s No. 200 overall player, No. 8 safety and the No. 8 player in his state.

Out of his ten finalists, he has actually only visited two, Virginia Tech and Penn State.

Once he is allowed to visit schools again, he hopes to cut his list in half to five.