Georgia’s season could still go in either direction

There’s a downside to having a bye week after suffering a humiliating home loss. It prolongs the misery.

For Georgia, though, the week off came at a most opportune time. It’s not so much that the week off has given the Bulldogs extra time to prepare for Florida. That certainly didn’t prove beneficial the last two seasons as the Dogs lost both times.

It did, however, afford Georgia a time to gather its thoughts — from first-year head coach Kirby Smart all the way down the depth chart. Nothing can erase the embarrassment of losing to the worst team in the SEC. But a win over Florida certainly would provide the program seeking to reestablish its credibility a much-needed boost.

The Bulldogs, 4-3, still could piece together a somewhat successful season. Yes, their hopes of winning the SEC East are all but shot. Tennessee would have to lose twice with Missouri, South Carolina, Kentucky and Vanderbilt to play, plus Florida would have to lose to Arkansas, South Carolina or LSU.

But another 10-win season remains a mathematical possibility. Five games remain in Smart’s first season as a head coach: Florida, at Kentucky, then home for the last three games against Auburn, Louisiana-Lafayette and Georgia Tech. The possible scenarios are wildly diverse.

All five games are winnable. Yet, with the exception of Lafayette — at least one would hope — they could lose them all and finish with a losing season for the first time since 2010 and fail to earn a bowl bid for the first time in 20 years.

It depends entirely on which Georgia team shows up. Will it be the one that dominated North Carolina and put up a spirited fight against Tennessee? Or will it be the one that nearly lost to Nichols and did lose to Vanderbilt.

“I think we’ve got to play our best football,” Smart said. “We’ve yet to do that all year.”

Smart doesn’t get too technical in assessing his team’s play. It’s the most fundamental elements of football.

“We concern ourselves with blocking, tackling, running fast, being smart, making good decisions, not having undisciplined penalties,” Smart said.

Smart isn’t concerned with the hype of the Florida rivalry, long considered by fans to be one of the Big Three, along with Auburn and Georgia Tech. He certainly isn’t concerned with the nickname, be it the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party or the River Something or Other nonsense, whatever that lame new name is.

“I call it the Georgia-Florida game,” Smart said.

Smart played in four of them, including the Dogs’ lone win in that stretch in 1997. The history is irrelevant to him but not the significance, both personally and to the status of the program.

“This game is a lot more important to me now than it was back then,” Smart said. “The ramifications are a little different and things are a little different.”

Although Florida lost to Tennessee, the Gators are probably the most complete and most talented team the Dogs have faced.

“They have a very good football team they have put together and they are playing at a high level. Those guys play really hard.”

That’s what Smart has been looking for in his team. Effort, high energy and consistency. He described the practices since the Vandy loss as being just that. Whether they took advantage of that week to regroup is another matter.

“I’ll answer that question Saturday,” Smart said. “I certainly think we worked toward it. I thought we got to attack some areas that we needed to. I really thought the kids had good energy and good attitudes to go out and practice the way they did – physical, hitting each other. And that’s thanks to the leadership of the team, to make the guys do that. Because when they sell it, the other guys buy into it.”

How well they have bought into it — and into Smart — will be revealed Saturday in Jacksonville.

This story was originally published October 25, 2016 at 8:02 PM with the headline "Georgia’s season could still go in either direction."