The story of the 2015 edition of the Georgia-Florida rivalry, “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,” is a complicated one beneath the surface.
On the playing surface in Jacksonville — all 120 yards long and 53 yards wide — it wasn’t complicated at all.
What you saw (if you bothered to watch this game, of course; if you tuned in during the first quarter and stuck with it, our prayers are with you) was one-way traffic on the banks of the St. John’s River. As soon as Florida scored an early touchdown on a muffed punt by Georgia’s supremely beleaguered receiver-returner Reggie Davis, many pundits felt the scales had tipped decisively to the Gators. That instinct proved to be accurate. When the Gators later forged a 13-0 lead in the second quarter, a lot of people thought the game was essentially done and dusted.
That line of thought turned out to be accurate as well.
The story of this particular Cocktail Party, then, is not complicated if you keep it above the surface. Georgia offered absolutely nothing with which to trouble Florida. The Gators’ two-possession lead felt like a five-possession lead against a good offense. The game was that much of a dud once Georgia’s litany of mistakes enabled Florida to take advantage.
The realities created by this game are crystal clear: The Gators, with a first-year coach, are headed for Atlanta on the first Saturday of December. Georgia, on the other hand, hasn’t been to the Georgia Dome with an SEC title on the line since 2012, and will now have to wait another year. Only twice since 2005 have Mark Richt and the Dawgs contested the SEC championship. Florida returns to the big show under the big top for the first time since 2009.
The “what” of the 2015 Cocktail Party is easy to identify.
It’s when you look below the surface that the story of this game becomes complicated.
*
Sure, Georgia missed Nick Chubb in a big way in this game. The Bulldogs were also hounded by quarterback questions, as Richt tried to play a hidden-ball trick of sorts with his crop of signal callers before kickoff. This bit of misdirection made sense; trying to create confusion or uncertainty in the Florida camp wasn’t a bad idea.
Unfortunately for Richt, Florida’s defense did not get distracted or confused; the Gators were too good on that side of the ball to be thrown for a loop. Fin. Game over.
The question we must ask in the wake of this division-clinching Gator drubbing (let’s be real: Vanderbilt might be technically alive in the SEC East, but for all intents and purposes, everyone knows this was the clincher) is as follows:
Why did Georgia have no answers — nothing of substance — at important positions on offense and special teams?
Why did Georgia have Faton Bauta so markedly unprepared to play, after Richt clearly entrusted him with this game after nearly two months of doing something different? When the first 20 minutes proved to be a disaster for Georgia’s offense, why did Richt not change his approach with his quarterbacks? On special teams, after the Reggie Davis muff, why did Richt continue to go back to him?
Here’s where the discussion gets deeper: You can reasonably claim that a coach is only as good as his options. That’s true. However, who is responsible for creating those options on a roster? In the pros, it’s the front office. The coach is just supposed to coach what management gives him. In college, the head coach IS the very same person who stocks the roster. Richt the strategist might have lacked good options, but Richt the recruiter obviously fell short. That might be the bigger concern than any specific decision Richt made during the course of this game.
Then consider, as a final point in this story, the fact that Florida didn’t play well on offense and was going into battle with its own backup quarterback. The Gators didn’t have Will Grier for this game… but it didn’t matter. Florida didn’t LET it matter.
That Georgia and Richt were powerless to alter their circumstances and fortunes might not be an indictment of Richt as a gameday coach, but this must reflect on Richt as a recruiter. One way or another, he has to answer to the fact that Georgia didn’t have positional answers for this game against a Florida team which did not have its ideal 11-man configuration on offense.
What does Georgia have to offer on offense? Mark Richt — with Brian Schottenheimer — will not win the SEC East or achieve anything of note in 2015. While Florida celebrates a richly-deserved division title, the Bulldogs’ brain trust must do some soul searching about how to get better in 2016.