The Georgia Bulldogs Weight Has Been Lifted, Now the Florida Gators Can Soar
Dan Mullen appeared positively weightless. Florida Gators fans bent at the waist, over the high bar of the stands in TIAA Bank Field and collectively grabbed the head coach by his arms and lifted him into their celebration with ease.
It’s a move oft pulled by players of the jubilant winning team following the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, but rarely is a coach seen executing a Florida version of the Lambeau Leap. But the ever exuberant Mullen couldn’t help himself as fans clamored for him to continue his victory lap in the stands.
"You have to enjoy it. I may be 48 years old but I am still really young on the inside, so I got to enjoy some of that stuff.”
Enjoy it Mullen did because in his third year as the Florida Gators Head Coach, he’d finally done what was just out of reach his first two seasons and what was necessary for the Gators to reach their perpetual goal of a SEC Championship…defeat Georgia.
By a score of 44-28, Mullen and what is turning out to be one of the nation’s best offenses racked up 571 yards and led the No. 8 Florida Gators to a win over the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs. Quarterback Kyle Trask firmly inserted himself into the Heisman Trophy conversation with 474 yards, a 70% completion rate and four touchdowns. Throwing for four touchdowns for the fifth game in a row broke the record he’d already set last week for most by any player in SEC history.
Three interceptions by the defense while holding the Dawgs to 277 total yards and 2-13 on 3rd down certainly helped as well.
And as Mullen was effortlessly pulled into the stands by grateful fans, it was evident, he was buoyant and weightless because at that point—and please pardon us the cliche—the monkey was off his back.
“I’m just so happy for our guys,” gushed Mullen.
“I’m proud of our guys. I told them before the game I was really excited to watch them play tonight because they’ve worked their tail off to be in this situation - and I enjoyed them play and I enjoyed celebrating.
“It feels great, obviously, winning this big-time game. It’s put us in a good and decent position. It’s put us in position to get ready to go beat Arkansas. We have Arkansas in seven days.”
Coach speak aside though, players were well aware of the importance placed on this particular game. Just ask receiver Tre Grimes.
“It means a lot to all of us, you know last year that feeling, leaving the, leaving the stadium, not being victorious is a bitter feeling and we've, we've worked hard all year to come back for this game on. Whether people say or not this is our, this is our biggest game.
“All year we've been, we've been waiting for this game, and to be able to come out here and do what we did, it's just a feeling that's indescribable."
In the grand scheme of rivalries and annual games, losing three in a row isn’t a vast chasm of despair. After all, before 2018, Florida owned the nation’s longest win streak over an opponent having defeated the Kentucky Wildcats 31 times. That is a streak.
But so much of Mullen’s first two years in Gainesville held promise and hope and then quickly developed expectations. The last remaining hump has been the Georgia Bulldogs who, while maybe not the biggest of Florida’s rivalries, is certainly the bitterest.
Before kickoff Steve and Jerri Spurrier wandered into the press box, catching up with journalists that had become friends and recalling days of yore like only Spurrier can. But we forget for however much Spurrier is regarded as a lovable lovely of college football now, there was a time he was hated. Opposing fan bases didn’t think his quips were amusing, media members thought he was out of line and there was a sense of worry that he wouldn’t do enough on the field to back up the blood he’s spilled with 1-inch jabs all offseason.
That is the playbook by which Mullen is operating and it’s an attitude that can only work in Gainesville…but he had yet to notch the truly signature win that would allow him the leeway Spurrier operated in during his tenure as the Gators head coach. The 2018 LSU win was huge and the 2019 Auburn win was impressive.
But Mullen had to beat Georgia.
These players had to beat Georgia.
The fan base needed a win over Georgia.
On Saturday night, under a cloudy sky that had opened throughout the night, the Gators did just that. As Florida players took a victory lap with their coach and celebrated with the reduced number of fans in attendance, junior tight end Kemore Gamble—who caught his first career touchdown on Saturday in a display of the ridiculous wealth Florida has put together on offense this season—had one thought continually tripping through his mind.
“‘Bout time, ‘bout time. It means a lot dog. We’ve been working hard each and every year. Just making it to the S—" but here he stopped himself, a massive grin overtaking his face as he realized the jinx he was about to place on his team by saying they’d already made it to the SEC Championship.
“Never mind I'm not saying that. Just working hard every year and finally got it.”
While Gamble was right to stop himself, his logic isn’t far off.
For the past five years, the path to Atlanta and the SEC Championship has gone through Jacksonville in what has essentially been a divisional championship game. Overall even, of the 28 SEC Championship games since it’s implementation in 1992, the Gators are tied with the Alabama Crimson Tide for a league most 12 appearances in the game. Georgia is second with eight appearances.
The win over Georgia on Saturday means the Gators would pretty much have to try not to make it to Atlanta now. The entire 10-game schedule is famously made up of only league games this season, and of the five remaining games on the schedule, Florida has three more East divisional match-ups: Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Getting to that point—Atlanta and ideally the College Football Playoff—is why every Florida player decided not to take the opt out option due to COVID-19 and why they committed to offseason Zoom workouts and why older guys like Tre Grimes came back for one last ride.
“I came back for a specific reason, that was to go on this national championship run. We know we had to get through Georgia first, that's what we just did. So we're looking forward to facing our next opponent and going out there and playing on these high level games.”
Even for those who still have a year or two of college ball in front of them, like corner Kaiir Elam, the win was sweeter watching veterans celebrate.
“Just to be able to celebrate with the seniors, you know. Guys who have been here four years. Shawn Davis, Brad Stewart, Donovan Stiner, Zach Carter, Marco Wilson, those guys they really deserve it you know. Kadarius Toney, Rick Wells, a lot of guys, they’ve been here four years and they’ve never beat Georgia, and for us to capitalize like we did, I was very grateful for that and I was so proud of them.”
Kyle Trask exhibited his pride as well, walking up and down the sidelines as the clock wound down to congratulate every teammate he passed. When the always affable and steady passer was tackled by offensive lineman Richard Gouraige in his on field post game media, it flipped a switch and allowed the redshirt senior who is currently fifth in the country in passing yards per game to let loose.
“It means so much, you know, having that losing streak that we had with them the past couple years, you know, it just means the world to this team to finally get over that hump and get a win against this very good, and well-coached Georgia team. I just, I can't be more proud of our guys right now,” bragged Trask.
“There was a play where, where we—it could have been an interception and it wasn’t and there was a play where we almost had an interception and it wasn't so you never know,” recalled Grimes.
“It came down to the last second, but I feel like probably when there's like a minute, two minutes left, that’s when we knew we had it. The ice started getting thrown, the water started getting sprayed and it was just an enjoyable moment.”
The ice, the water and whatever libations fans spewed around the stands soaked the already rain saturated field. Dan Mullen went to the locker room and showed off objectively horrible dance moves that his guys still loved. Players and coaches and even the most hardened of observers couldn’t help but smile.
Afterwards, Mullen would talk of those smiles and how they were earned through an incredibly hard year that so many in Gator Nation and the United States have been forced to stumble through with a global pandemic and civil unrest. And how for at least one night in Jacksonville, there was a great celebration.
But this celebration was about more than just 2020. This was three years of pent up anger and frustration with a dash of blame and guilt over missed opportunities in recent years. It all came pouring out at once. It made grown men weightless and players turn into little kids and gave an entire program permission to stop thinking of a championship as a dream but rather an attainable goal.
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