It has been a constant source of frustration for the Florida Gators. They have not been able to overcome the Georgia Bulldogs for first place in the SEC East in recent years. Florida has not won an SEC East title since 2016. Georgia has won the East the last three seasons. The pattern is the same: Florida brings a solid defense into its annual game against Georgia, but gets torn apart on offense and fails to score enough points to top the Bulldogs. Florida will have to do something to change the balance of power against Georgia this year. It is the challenge the Gators must figure out if they want to finally win another division title and compete for the SEC championship once again. Florida hasn\u2019t won the SEC title since 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Offseason Changes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gators lost cornerback C.J. Henderson to the NFL as the No. 9 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. The Gators also lost receiver Van Jefferson, defensive end Jabari Zuniga, linebacker Jon Greenard, running back La\u2019Mical Perine, receiver Freddie Swain, and receiver Tyrie Cleveland. Henderson, Zuniga and Greenard were especially important to the 2019 roster. Finding good replacements for them will be of paramount significance for coach Dan Mullen\u2019s team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gators Will Succeed If\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Their defensive line can dominate. It would be great in an ideal world for Florida to finally come up with a great offense which can score 30 points and outflank Georgia\u2019s defense, but that is not a particularly realistic scenario for the Gators. If they are going to beat Georgia, the more likely path to success is to shut down Georgia\u2019s offense and win a 17-13 style of game. This means Florida\u2019s defense has to be excellent, and that starts with a defensive line which needs to bother and pummel Georgia\u2019s new starting quarterback. The Dawgs watched Jake Fromm go to the NFL, so J.T. Daniels or D\u2019Wan Mathis will replace him this season. If Florida can cause Daniels or Mathis to have a horrible, miserable game, the Gators could hold down Georgia\u2019s offense and win an ugly slugfest. That is how they are likely to win the SEC East, if they can actually achieve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gators Will Fail If\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kyle Trask fails to make moderate improvements at quarterback. Kyle Trask doesn\u2019t need to be an elite quarterback, but after a solid season in 2019, he needs to become noticeably better \u2013 not a massive transformation, but completing five or six more passes per game and converting a handful of additional third down situations to keep Florida\u2019s drives alive. Trask has to be able to produce in key moments for Florida. He doesn\u2019t have to rewrite the record book. If he can come through in the clutch, Florida could vault past Georgia and end its bitter losing streak to the Dawgs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prediction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gators will have a chance since Georgia\u2019s SEC schedule is difficult, but Florida must beat Georgia to have a good chance of winning the SEC East. The Gators\u2019 offense won\u2019t be markedly better this year than it was in the past. Their hope is that Georgia\u2019s quarterbacks will tumble. It\u2019s something which could happen, but it\u2019s a lot to expect. Florida doesn\u2019t really control its fate. This is more about how well Georgia will handle its situation. If Florida can\u2019t really be trusted, the edge \u2013 if only by default \u2013 should stay with Georgia in this two-team battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prediction: 2nd in SEC East<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It has been a constant source of frustration for the Florida Gators. They have not been able to overcome the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":13569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaaf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13570,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13565\/revisions\/13570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}