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Georgia football: Why this is the most important Cocktail Party in years

The Georgia-Florida game has the potential to be the most important between the teams in many years.
John Kelley/UGA
Cy Brown
Cy Brown

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Georgia could turn a corner with Florida win

Matt Brown of Sports on Earth has an excellent piece this week that makes the case for this being the most important World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in recent memory.

Brown’s reasoning is that Florida has dominated the SEC East since conference expansion in 1992, holding 12 East titles to Georgia and Tennessee’s five apiece. And any time favored Georgia teams have had an opportunity to turn a corner, shift the power, and do something special — 2002, 2003, 2005, 2014 — the Gators are there to spoil the fun. Now Georgia has another shot to shift the balance, if it can avoid the upset.

It all adds up to make the Saturday game one of the biggest in the rivalry in years because, no matter how far behind Florida appears, Georgia can’t help but measure itself based on how it performs against the Gators. Even when it’s having a great season, it often still has a Florida problem. If it wants to flip the balance of power in the SEC East, it has to take care of business against a struggling Florida team and emphasize that the pecking order truly is changing.

If there’s ever been a time to make a statement in the Cocktail Party, this is it.

No pressure, right?

Reliving the ‘Gator Stomp’

This is the 10-year anniversary of Georgia’s famous “Gator Stomp” in the WLOCP. To commemorate the anniversary, Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald put together a fantastic retrospective of the moment, including quotes from all kinds of folks involved in the 2007 game, going over all the circumstances that led to the whole team rushing the field. My favorite quote comes from Knowhson Moreno, who explained what the original celebration plan was before the end zone was bull rushed by dozens of his teammates.

“The plan was when we scored as an offense that we’d all get together in the end zone and kind of take like a picture,” Moreno said. “Whoever scored the touchdown is supposed to be the one taking the picture on the rest of the people on the offense. I get up to take a picture of the offense and I look over to my right and the whole team is there. I’m like, ‘Wow, they really went too far with this one.’”

OK, make that my second favorite quote. My favorite is Tim Tebow still being salty after all these years.

“I was a little irritated,” he said. “I thought it did not show a lot of class. It was purposefully going out of their way to find a way to get an edge outside of the rules.”

The name game

If you haven’t noticed, I call this rivalry game the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, ‘cause that’s what it is. Other might refer to it as Georgia-Florida, which is fine. Some say River City Showdown, which is not. It seems the only folks without much of an opinion on the name of this rivalry are Georgia coach Kirby Smart and Florida coach Jim McElwain. From Seth Emerson of DawgNation:

“I’ll be honest with you. I don’t get into that part of it. That’s not really for me to concern ourselves with,” Smart said Wednesday when asked about it on the SEC coaches media teleconference. “Our No. 1 objective is to play our best game, our best football. It’s a very unique setting. And I think that’s awesome. 

“But as far as what they call it, it’s the Georgia-Florida game to me.”

“That’s a lot over my head,” McElwain said. “I just know it’s a great rivalry and a lot of fun to participate in.”

Georgia’s unsung hero

ESPN took a look at the top unsung hero from each team in the top 25. The selection for Georgia was left tackle Isaiah Wynn.

“Georgia’s offensive line was a major question mark heading into this season, but the veteran Wynn has established himself as one of the league’s top tackles and has helped anchor an ever-improving group for the 7-0 Bulldogs,” Edward Aschoff of ESPN wrote.

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