This is the Isaiah D. Hart Bridge, which you have to cross to get to EverBank Field, which sits on the banks of the St. John’s River in downtown Jacksonville.
For Georgia fans, this is a bridge to nowhere. A bridge to broken dreams. A bridge to unmitigated futility. A bridge to a horrific place where so many Bulldog dreams have come to die over the years.
When Vegas first issued a line for today’s game back in June, they listed Florida as a 1-point favorite.
That line shifted slightly in the interim. To Georgia. By 13 1/2.
It is believed that the bookie who set the original line back in June has since found a new gig, as a plant operator in the factory that makes those colored cellophane strips that go on the end of deli toothpicks.
But perhaps that bookie was onto something.
Everything about today’s game screams rout. Our opponent is 3-3 and lucky to be that–just a Hail Mary at 0:00 and a late-game Kentucky collapse away from being 1-5. They have the worst offense in the country. Their defense, which has been their saving grace all decade, is trending down this year. Their coach just can’t seem to find the right quarterback, though he has tried several over the 2 1/2 years he has been in place. The discontent in their fan base has risen to a heretofore unfathomed level, eclipsing all the good vibes from consecutive division titles in the previous two years.
If it were any other team in the country, I would say we win by at least three touchdowns.
So why am I expecting a ginormous corpsid Freddie-Krueger-esque hand to suddenly punch through the field and grab Kirby Smart, Nick Chubb, Uga, plus a few cheerleaders and Redcoat Band members for good measure, and drag them all down kicking and screaming to the underworld?
Because that is what always seems to happen in Jacksonville. This is Florida.
The last time Georgia was favored by two touchdowns over Florida was in 2014. We lost by three. Touchdowns, that is. Give or take a flattened five-star recruit or two.
The next year there was Mark Richt’s oh-so-regrettable decision to start Faton Bauta, a third-string quarterback who had never played a collegiate down in his entire earthly existence, in the season’s biggest game. That went about as well as could be expected. Down went Georgia, 27-3. That decision likely sealed Richt’s fate at Georgia.
Last year it was offense. Or lack thereof. The offense was so inoffensive it was offensive: 164 yards total offense, 21 rushing (1.1 per carry), nine three-and-out or four-and-out series in the final 10 possessions. Down went Georgia, 24-10.
But the misery and futility extend back much further and deeper than just the last three years. As noted above, the line for today’s game is 13 1/2. Georgia hasn’t beaten Florida by 13 1/2 or more since 1997 (37-17). Georgia has only beaten Florida by any margin six times in the last 27 years. Sometimes this was expected. Sometimes not, as was the case in 2014. The last two Georgia teams to win the SEC championship (2002 and 2005) each had to absorb a loss to Florida in order to accomplish that feat. This year every other team in the SEC East now has at least two conference losses, which means we have enough margin to absorb a loss to Florida and still remain in control of the East. Hopefully that will not be necessary. But this is Florida.
So please forgive me for being less than fully optimistic about today’s game. On paper, everything screams rout. Georgia has the more talented players, the better resume, and more to play for. Yet for some reason, Boris Karloff always seems to show up for the opening coin flip and things go off the rails from there.
I want to believe that things will be different this year, that this will finally be the year in which that trip across the Isaiah D. Hart Bridge does not end in futility. But I have been waiting on that for 27 years. So I am not believing it until the final play of the game is whistled dead and the scoreboard shows more points for Georgia than for Florida.
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