Rece Davis predicts Georgia to cover spread against Florida

The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party will take place this weekend with No. 1 Georgia taking on a Florida squad that is now 5-2 on the season.

With several ways to look at this game, Rece Davis broke it down with ‘Stanford Steve’ on the ‘College GameDay Podcast’ on Thursday. To start, he reminded everyone of just how dominant the two-time defending champions have been in their own division within the SEC.

“24 in a row for the ‘Dawgs, they’ve won 17 straight against opponents within their division,” recalled Davis. “Their last loss was to the Gators in 2020.”

However, with Brock Bowers out with an ankle injury and their quarterback having to handle the pressure of a homecoming, Davis thinks there’s at least some potential that Florida could catch Georgia at a spot where they might not be at their best.

“With the Brock Bowers being out story? And Carson Beck coming back to Duval, the Jacksonville kid?” Davis noted. “And Florida might be improving a little bit here.”

There are plenty of reasons to believe in Florida in some sense in this matchup, whether it’s against the spread or outright. The ‘Dawgs are without their best player, the series is often one that plays out in an odd way, and the game will once again be played at a neutral site that’s an hour north of Gainesville.

Even so, Davis considered all of that and still took Georgia in the end to both win and cover the spread of -14.5 points against the Gators.

“I think Georgia having the week off is big,” said Davis. “This game, historically, is weird because you have a pretty rich history of one side spoiling things for the other, knocking them out dating all the way back.”

“This is like the perfect spot for Florida to do this to Georgia – and I just don’t believe it,” Davis said. “So I’m going to take the ‘Dawgs and lay the points, even without Brock Bowers.”

Steve Spurrier offers thoughts on Florida vs. Georgia, Jacksonville location

Steve Spurrier has plenty of great memories in the rivalry between Florida and Georgia. The former coach for the Gators posted an 11-1 record against the Bulldogs during his 12 seasons in Gainesville.

As the two teams prepare to meet on Saturday, Spurrier joined The Paul Finebaum Show to offer his thoughts on the matchup. The Bulldogs are set to play their first game without Brock Bowers but Spurrier still knows they’re a dangerous team regardless.

“I always just say you play better than your opponent and you’ve got a chance to beat ’em,” he said. “Don’t have crucial errors and maybe hit a big play here or there. Something like that.”

Some Gators fans wanted the game moved to a home-and-home, believing the location of the game had something to do with their string of losses. However, Spurrier reminded them of the advantage that it provides their fanbase.

“Back in ’90, we went over there to play the Bulldogs. The people in Florida were saying, ‘We need to move this game to home and away! We can’t beat ’em in Jacksonville!’” he said. “They had beaten us 15 out of the last 20 years. I said, ‘Wait a minute. We’re playing in Florida in a stadium called the Gator Bowl and they gotta fly down and we bus over. Pretend that we’re playing Georgia in Atlanta in a stadium called the Bulldog Bowl? And we have to fly up and they bus over? You’d say, ‘That’s not fair, right?’. So I finally got everybody convinced that it’s a little edge for us to play in Jacksonville.”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t win. That means you just gotta play better than those guys. The first year, we had a much, much better team than Georgia and won pretty easily. We sort of mentally started thinking we’ve got an edge here. Let’s keep it going.”