Florida vs. Georgia: Run Game Crucial to Victory for Both Teams
Quarterback matchups receive a ton of spotlight ahead of big-time games, but a look at the last few years of the fierce Florida-vs.-Georgia rivalry directs the eyes to the ground instead of the skies.
Just look at last season's matchup, when Florida upset a Top 10 Georgia team by a score of 38-20. Florida uncapped a 418-yard rushing performance at the "Cocktail Party," while Georgia only ran for 141 yards—its worst performance in that area for the entire 2014 season.
As for the quarterbacks, Georgia starter Hutson Mason had a good afternoon, completing 26 of his 41 passes for 319 yards and a touchdown. Treon Harris, who started in place of the now-transferred Jeff Driskel, only attempted six passes the entire game.
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"We knew we were going to pound them and pound them and were going to keep pounding them," Florida running back Kelvin Taylor said after the 2014 win, per ESPN.com. "We weren't going to be denied."
While several aspects of these two teams have changed since last year's meeting—Florida (6-1) has a new head coach in Jim McElwain and is the favorite over Mark Richt's two-loss Georgia team, according to Odds Shark—the importance on the rushing attacks for this Saturday's matchup has not.
Georgia ended a two-game losing skid two weeks ago against Missouri, but the offense put up fewer than 300 total yards in a 9-6 win. The Bulldogs only averaged 2.67 yards per carry in their first full game since star Nick Chubb's devastating knee injury against Tennessee.
Part of the reason for the low numbers on the ground was the health of sophomore Sony Michel, who suffered a hip injury early in the game.
But after an off week, Richt says Michel is ready to go against Florida, per Jason Butt of the Macon Telegraph.
Now's the time for Michel to step up for this Georgia offense and take charge. He is averaging almost six yards per carry this season but could use a true breakout game as the new No. 1 running back.
If Bulldogs fans are looking for a magic number, try 150.
As Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald noted, Georgia is 4-0 since 2006 when rushing for 150 yards or more against Florida. The Bulldogs are 0-5 when they don't hit that mark.
The 2015 Gators may have the nation's No. 21-ranked rush defense, but a quick glance at their game-by-game statistics from this season shows that most of the teams that have played it close with Florida effectively ran the football.
| Kentucky | Won 14-9 | 41 | 115 | 0 |
| Tennessee | Won 28-27 | 51 | 254 | 2 |
| Ole Miss | Won 38-10 | 33 | 69 | 0 |
| Missouri | Won 21-3 | 26 | 106 | 0 |
| LSU | Lost 35-28 | 41 | 221 | 3 |
Florida has one of the nation's most talented secondaries with the likes of Vernon Hargreaves III, Jalen Tabor and Marcus Maye. Gator defensive backs average an interception per game and have already scored two pick-sixes this season—a troubling matchup for a struggling Greyson Lambert and his receiving corps.
Feeding the ball to an effective Michel will give Georgia the best chance to succeed against the Florida defense, and it'll also open things up more for Lambert when the Bulldogs decide to go to the air.
On the other side of this matchup, Florida is placing a high priority on generating explosive plays on the ground.
As Thomas Goldkamp of 247Sports put it, Florida's early-season success has been extra impressive because "the Gators have done it without any semblance of a strong running game."
And McElwain wants that fixed immediately.
"It’s not good enough, and it’s obvious," McElwain said, per Goldkamp. "We’ve got to get better. We haven’t created explosive runs. And look, the guys are trying. But obviously it’s not where we expect it to be or where it’s going to be. We’ve got to get better there."
Taylor has managed to run for 463 yards and eight touchdowns without a strong push from Florida's inexperienced offensive line. But Taylor, one of the stars from last season's win over Georgia, only had 25 yards on 15 carries against LSU.
It's hard to imagine Florida suddenly becoming dominant on the ground with that front five, but keep in mind this team exploded for more than 400 rushing yards against Georgia following its off week last year.
The 2014 Gators, too, entered Jacksonville needing a spark on the ground. In their four SEC games prior to the Georgia matchup, they had only averaged 130.25 rushing yards.
While this year's Florida offense isn't a strong candidate to drop 400 rushing yards on Georgia, it could very well find a way to get things on the ground against this Bulldog defense.
Alabama and Tennessee each rushed for two touchdowns and averaged more than four yards per carry in their respective wins over Georgia. Physical running back Derrick Henry led the way for the Crimson Tide against Georgia's run defense, but Tennessee got the majority of its rushing yards through quarterback Joshua Dobbs.
Like Dobbs, Harris has the ability to make plays with his feet, and Richt knows the challenges his defense will face with the Gator quarterback.
"They’ll move him through bootlegs and nakeds and sprint-outs, and things of that nature," Richt said, per Butt. "Treon is obviously a very athletic guy and has made a lot of athletic plays on the move, throwing and running."
Harris also has the experience of quarterbacking a successful rushing offense against this Georgia defense.
As the series' most recent matchups show, Georgia gets victories over Florida when it runs the ball well but loses when it doesn't. The Gators won the matchup last season by slowing down the Bulldogs on defense and then running all over them.
Whichever side of that recent history repeats itself on Saturday will determine the side that leaves Jacksonville with an SEC title-contending future this season.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com.
Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.
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