Georgia Goes to Atlanta Without the Man Who Won Jacksonville
Written by Jarvis Prime on October 31, 2026
GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Saturday, October 31, 2026
Chauncey Bowens, who scored last year's winning touchdown against Florida, is out with his foot, and the Gators' leading rusher is very much in.
ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk
The man who won last year's game for Georgia will spend this afternoon in street clothes. Georgia's Friday availability report moved Chauncey Bowens from questionable to out with his foot injury, DawgNation reported, and Bowens is the back who scored the winning touchdown in Jacksonville a year ago. Amaris Williams, Thomas Blackshear and Tyriq Green are out with him, and Isiah Canion is questionable. Smart said, DawgNation reported, that Williams is doing some drills but is in no shape to play. The good news, such as it is, is that Nate Frazier and Kyron Jones were not on the report at all.
Georgia's ball carriers are thin at the very hour Florida's are not. Jadan Baugh leads the Southeastern Conference with 763 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns, the Associated Press noted this week, and Florida averages 194.3 rushing yards a game. Georgia allows 91.4, second in the league, but Auburn outrushed the Bulldogs 192-113 a fortnight ago, and most of the bye week went to tackling circuits. Linebacker Raylen Wilson told reporters Tuesday that Baugh has thick lowers and runs through arm tackles. 'He likes to run that ball and we like to stop the run,' Wilson said. 'It's going to be a good game.'
The man who won last year's game for Georgia will spend this afternoon in street clothes.
Florida has settled its quarterback question, and settled it the hard way for Georgia. Aaron Philo, the shoulder patient, will start, OnlyGators reported Friday, which means the Gators bring the experienced arm rather than the freshman who beat Texas. Their report is not clean either. Receiver Vernell Brown III was downgraded to questionable after a month out with a knee, and running back Duke Clark is out. Smart said on his radio show Thursday night that Florida has some really good playmakers, a coordinator who knows what he is doing, and a back. He did not sound like a man planning on an easy afternoon.
The stakes are larger than one rivalry. Mike Griffith of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote Friday that with several two-loss SEC teams chasing the Dec. 5 title game in this same building, today is close to a play-in for what may be the last SEC championship game ever played. The first playoff rankings come out Tuesday night. The bookmakers have Georgia by 12.5 with a total of 53.5. Our Georgia Moneyball machine says Georgia 30, Florida 21, and gives the Bulldogs a 70 percent chance to win outright but only 41.7 percent to cover. The FPI at ESPN is more confident, at 82.7 percent.
If you want to know why nobody at this desk is calling a favorite of nearly two touchdowns a lock, look at what happened while Georgia sat on the couch last Saturday. UCF beat No. 2 BYU 39-31 in double overtime, the first top-five win in that school's history, after a disputed ten-second runoff and a blocked field goal. Cincinnati ended No. 8 Texas Tech's perfect season 37-24. Texas gave away a 21-point halftime lead to Ole Miss and still won 34-27 on a Hail Mary interception. South Carolina beat Tennessee 27-24 on a walk-off kick, the fans tore up the end-zone bushes, and the league sent a bill for $500,000.
One more thing before you settle in. WRUF went back through every first-year Florida coach's Georgia game since 1990 and found them 9-9, with Spurrier and Meyer winning their debuts and Muschamp and Mullen losing theirs, and concluded the first result predicted very little about the tenure that followed. Jon Sumrall arrives 5-2 with wins over Ole Miss and Texas. Georgia arrives having not lost two straight regular-season games in a decade, a streak the Bulldogs would rather not discuss in the past tense come suppertime.
The Notebook
- KICKOFF: Georgia and Florida, 3:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC, indoors at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It is the first time since 1995 the game has not been played in Jacksonville.
- AROUND THE SLATE: Buckeye Nuts at Trojan Horsemen, 7:30 Eastern, OSU -6.5, and the desk calls it a coin-flip. Cowbell Ringers at Longhorn Steers, TEX -20.5, is a lock.
- BUTKUS WATCH: Georgia's athletic department said Wednesday that linebacker Chris Cole is one of 15 semifinalists for the Butkus Award. He leads the team with 8.5 tackles for loss.
Written in the tradition of Lewis Grizzard, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1946–1994.
Hear the desk read tonights report on Radio Free Albany, WPFQ 96.7.
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