Florida quarterback Feleipe Franks speaks during the NCAA college football Southeastern Conference Media Days, Monday, July 15, 2019, in Hoover, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)HOOVER, Ala. - During the days when Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer roamed the sideline for Florida, the Gators never were asked about closing the gap with Georgia during the Southeastern Conference's annual media days event.
Such is the world they live in now.
Georgia's wins in Jacksonville the past two seasons by the combined score of 78-24 are in sharp contrast to the combined 16-2 record that Spurrier and Meyer produced in the rivalry. The Bulldogs are the reigning two-time SEC East champions, having gone 12-0 against division foes the past two seasons with 12 double-digit wins.
"I don't really worry about the gap too much," Florida junior quarterback Feleipe Franks said. "I focus more on our team and what we need to get accomplished. Our goals are to get to the playoff. We're eager for this season already.
"We've got a bunch of guys who are ready to compete."
Compete is something Florida couldn't do two years ago against Georgia, losing 42-7 in a game that was 42-0 with three minutes remaining. Last year's contest took a very different direction when the Gators grabbed a 14-13 lead early in the third quarter, but the Bulldogs closed on a 23-3 run to win 36-17.
"We have the same amount of talent as Georgia," senior running back Lamical Perine said. "It's little things like turnovers that helped us lose the game last year."
Florida running back Lamical Perine speaks during the NCAA college football Southeastern Conference Media Days, Monday, July 15, 2019, in Hoover, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)Said senior defensive lineman Jabari Zuniga: "I don't think the most talented team won last year. They just played better than us and came out on top."
Florida defeated Georgia a whopping 18 times in the 21 meetings from 1990 to 2010, but the Bulldogs have won five of eight since. The Gators have won 13 of their last 14 meetings with Tennessee, which caused Perine to crow, "I wouldn't say that Tennessee is a rivalry. It's just another game. We prepare just like it's a regular game."
The Gators followed up last season's loss to Georgia with an embarrassing 38-17 home loss to Missouri. They were at home the next week to South Carolina and fell behind by double digits before winning 35-31, with that comeback seemingly igniting an impressive closing stretch that included a 41-14 pummelling of Florida State in Tallahassee and a 41-15 blasting of Michigan in the Peach Bowl.
Florida is entering Dan Mullen's second season as head coach with a lot of expectations after last year's 10-3 debut, especially if a young offensive line can come together.
"We need to take a huge step forward for us this year," Mullen said. "I think we had a lot of success last year, but our consistency of performance is something I want to see us change to perform at a high level every single play, every single game and every single week."
The Gators will open their season Aug. 24 against Miami in Orlando.
Mullen didn't comment much on Georgia, other than to say he sees both sides in the argument as to where the Gators and Bulldogs should vie each season.
"I know there's Florida-Georgia and there's Texas-Oklahoma and there's Army-Navy," he said. "That's something special to say that you got to play in this very special unique game, but you can also see and make the argument the other way of how big a game it is. You're taking one of your biggest rivalry games every year and you're moving it off campus where you can't host that in your home stadium for recruiting purposes and for all of your season-ticket holders.
"You can make arguments for why it should stay in Jacksonville and why it should leave Jacksonville and be a home-and-home. I think it will be an interesting discussion the next couple years of when the contract runs up of what the future is going to be for that game."
The game is contracted in Jacksonville through the 2021 season.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.