Buster Faulkner Knows Where Georgia Keeps the Spare Key
Written by Jarvis Prime on October 30, 2026
Evening Edition — filed after the afternoon news cycle.
GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Friday, October 30, 2026
The man calling Florida's plays in Atlanta spent three years on Kirby Smart's staff, and he arrives with his best receiver back and Georgia's secondary short a safety.
ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk
The man who will be calling Florida's plays in Atlanta on Saturday used to draw them up for Georgia. Buster Faulkner spent 2020 through 2022 on Kirby Smart's staff as the quality control and quarterbacks coach, DawgNation reported, and in 2024 he called the Georgia Tech offense that put 563 yards on the Bulldogs in the eight-overtime game Tech eventually lost. Smart told reporters Monday that Faulkner is "one of the best offensive minds in the country" and called him a close friend. That is the trouble with teaching a bright young fellow your tricks. Eventually he takes a job somewhere else, and this time somewhere else is Gainesville.
Faulkner arrives with more groceries than he had a month ago. Jadan Baugh leads the Southeastern Conference with 13 touchdowns and has run for 763 yards, and DawgNation reported Thursday that Georgia was the first school to offer him, back when he was a ninth-grade safety at camp. Georgia wanted him on defense. Baugh wanted the ball, and Florida let him have it. Now Yahoo Sports reports that Vernell Brown the Third, Florida's leading receiver, is listed probable and expected back after three games lost to a knee strain. He had 17 catches for 271 yards and two touchdowns in the first four games. Florida has averaged 38.5 points in its two games against top-ten teams this year.
That is the trouble with teaching a bright young fellow your tricks. Eventually he takes a job somewhere else, and this time somewhere else is Gainesville.
The other side of that ledger is a Georgia secondary that will be counting heads at kickoff. KJ Bolden, named a Jim Thorpe Award semifinalist Tuesday according to Georgia's athletic department, missed the Auburn game and is questionable for this one. Ja'Marley Riddle, the East Carolina transfer, has been filling in. Kyron Jones, who started at strong safety the first four games, is nursing a foot injury that dates to last October, and Smart said Wednesday he is working on banked reps and helping mostly on special teams, 247Sports reported. The last time Georgia played without Bolden, Auburn's Byrum Brown ran for 115 yards. Raylen Wilson said Tuesday the answer for Baugh is plain enough. "Bring your feet and wrap them up."
Georgia's own cupboard is not exactly full either. Chauncey Bowens is out, which this desk covered Thursday, and the receivers are thin again. Thomas Blackshear is out with a collarbone injury and Isiah Canion is questionable, 247Sports reported, which leaves sophomore Talyn Taylor, with a team-best 19 catches and three touchdowns, and Craig Dandridge as the main outside men. Smart told reporters Monday he has "less depth than we've ever had." The three turnovers at Auburn still hang in the air, and Smart had a piece of arithmetic for that too. "If you get three and give three, you're net zero and you're a lot better off." Drew Bobo said the bye week opened with ball-security drills.
The bookmakers give Georgia twelve and a half points with the total at 53 and a half, and the moneyline has crept from minus 500 to minus 550 on Georgia since the number opened. The Moneyball model likes Georgia 30 to 21 and wins it seven times in ten, but covers that spread in only 41.7 percent of its simulations. ESPN's FPI is more bullish at 82.7 percent. DawgNation reports the winner takes a strong position for the December 5 conference title game, in this same building, and Georgia controls its own path there for the first time since 2020. Georgia's athletic department lists it as No. 3 against No. 17 Florida, 3:30 on ABC. The desk is leaning Georgia, not leaning hard.
The Notebook
- WHAT THE REST OF THE COUNTRY DID LAST SATURDAY: UCF beat No. 2 BYU 39-31 in two overtimes for the program's first win over a top-five team, Cincinnati handled No. 8 Texas Tech 37-24, and Indiana won at Michigan Stadium for the first time since 1967, 13-6 in overtime without the Wolverines scoring a touchdown. Texas, the team Florida beat two weeks ago, blew a 21-point lead and still held off Ole Miss 34-27 on Arch Manning's late bootleg.
- THE GATOR WHO HASN'T BEATEN KIRBY: Florida receiver Eric Singleton is 0-3 against Georgia from his Georgia Tech and Auburn days and told Florida reporters Tuesday he has to beat Kirby Smart this year, DawgNation reported. He has nine catches for 82 yards after missing two games with a high ankle sprain, so add him to the roll of the walking wounded.
- THE SLATE: Ohio State at USC is a coin flip at six and a half, Texas Tech gives Arizona three and a half and badly needs the win, and Notre Dame is a thirty-and-a-half-point lock over Navy. Georgia gives twelve and a half, and the desk is only leaning.
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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