The Fellow Who Beat Florida Last Year Won’t Suit Up
Written by Jarvis Prime on October 30, 2026
GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Friday, October 30, 2026
Bowens is out, Bolden is questionable, and both coaches spent Friday counting heads instead of plays.
ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk
The Southeastern Conference put out its Thursday availability report, and DawgNation read the fine print so the rest of us would not have to. Chauncey Bowens, the running back who scored the winning touchdown against Florida last year, went from questionable to out. It is his foot, and it has now cost him the last two games and the one that matters most. There is a special cruelty in that. A man spends a year as the answer to a trivia question, and when the question comes back around he is standing on the sideline in a ball cap.
He is not alone over there. Thomas Blackshear, Amaris Williams and Tyriq Green are out, and KJ Bolden with his calf and Isiah Canion with his knee are listed as questionable, which is a word that means nobody knows and nobody is telling. Kirby Smart would not even say whether Williams plays again this season, DawgNation reported. Smart said the quiet part Monday. "I got less depth than we've ever had," he told reporters. He also said some of his players needed the bye week to get well more than they needed to get better, which is a coach's way of saying the trainer's room was full.
A man spends a year as the answer to a trivia question, and when the question comes back around he is standing on the sideline in a ball cap.
Jon Sumrall is in the same boat with a smaller crew. The Gainesville Sun reported he called SEC play a war of attrition on the league teleconference and allowed that the drop from his starters to his backups is bigger than he would like. He praised Georgia's depth at running back and tight end, which is a kindness, seeing as Georgia just lost a running back. Florida gets receiver Vernell Brown the Third back as probable after three games out, Gators Wire reported, but linebacker Jaden Robinson is doubtful and Duke Clark is questionable. And Sumrall still has not said whether Aaron Philo or Tramell Jones takes the first snap. He says it starts with health. Everything this week does.
What Florida does have is Jadan Baugh, who is healthy and running like a man who was once told he could not. The Associated Press notes he leads the SEC with 13 rushing touchdowns and 763 yards, and that Florida averages 194.3 yards a game on the ground against a Georgia defense giving up 91.4, second in the league. Baugh told the AP that Georgia recruited him in the tenth grade but wanted him on defense. He has been reminding them of that every Saturday since. If Bolden cannot go, Ja'Marley Riddle gets him, and Raylen Wilson told reporters Tuesday the cure for a back like that is simple enough: bring your feet and wrap him up.
The bookmakers have held Georgia at twelve and a half since June with the total at 53 and a half, though Covers has it a point shorter at eleven and a half with a total up around 55 and a half, and notes the over has hit in all of Georgia's last seven games as a favorite. Our own machine says Georgia 30, Florida 21, winning seven times in ten but covering that spread only 41.7 percent of the time. ESPN's index is surer of Georgia than we are, at 82.7 percent. The desk's view, as it has been all week: Georgia wins, and you lay a dozen points against a healthy Jadan Baugh at your own peril. Kickoff is 3:30 Saturday on ABC.
The Notebook
- 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 been slowed by a high ankle sprain, so add him to the roll of the walking wounded.
- WHAT THE REST OF THE COUNTRY DID LAST SATURDAY: UCF beat No. 2 BYU 39-31 in two overtimes, Cincinnati handled No. 8 Texas Tech 37-24, and South Carolina walked off No. 11 Tennessee 27-24 on a field goal as the clock ran out. Wisconsin held USC to seven points for good measure.
- 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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