BREACHING PROTOCOL: A QUICK GLANCE AT NEXT WEEK’S SHOWDOWN AND A “THANKS TO UGA”

“Fear is the true opiate of combat.”

 

SNL, like everyone, has heard it over and over.  “We respect (team we should dominate), and we’re not looking ahead to (our biggest rival).  We are taking this season 1 game at a time.”  

Naturally, the need to utter this bland and overused quote, or some facsimile thereof, is because it is 100% false.  Right now, every Gator fan, player, and Coach is eager to dispense of UK so they can officially do what they have been unofficially doing since last year, planning revenge on Georgia. 

Nationally, the interest in UF-UGA game will depend largely on the reult of Georgia’s game this Saturday in Baton Rouge.  Locally, this game will be anticipated, talked about, dissected, downloaded, uploaded, condensed, DVR’d, and YouTubed more than Brittany Spears’ nipple “incident,” irrespective of the outcome in Baton Rouge.

For Gators, it is inarguable that the visceral need to beat the Dawgs in humbling fashion will remain unchanged irrespective of Saturday’s outcome.  This fact flows inevitably from last year’s loss, which emphatically ended an era of Gator dominance. 

Like all Gators, SNL’s lamentations could be heard for miles following UGA’s defeat of Florida last year.  As the days passed, however, SNL came to see the good, which is that this rivalry, which has experienced periods of hegemonic dominance much like the Visigoths and Romans,  had been given new life.  For this, SNL offers to the Dawgs a humble thanks.  Moving on…

UGA’s game against LSU is difficult to get a read on.  For its part, Georgia has been a study in incongruency this year.  Knowshon, Stafford and the unbelievable freshman wideout, Green, have put up great numbers by and large, and yet Georgia seems on a weekly basis to allow its opponents to hover in some sort of purgatory, never out of the game, but never really in the game either. 

Certainly, the well-chronicled offensive line problems, as well as the evident overzealousness of the Athens PD, have played a significant part in UGA’s inability to dominate its SEC foes to date.  To his credit, Richt has nonetheless kept the Dawgs in the winner’s column for the most part, and may well do so again this Saturday.

On the other side of the ball, SNL can’t help but feel that LSU’s undressing at The Swamp has disproportionately damaged its national reputation.  That LSU was able to win at South Carolina has apparently done little to change this, despite the fact that the Cocks have an excellent defense and were playing well coming into that game.  Though ot evident from an empirical standpoint, especially given LSU’s schedule to date, SNL has a feeling that the Tigers of the Louisiana genus are probably better than given credit for. 

For Gators, the result of the LSU-UGA game may not carry the impact originally foreseen.  For example, if LSU wins at home, Florida’s resouding victory over LSU is commensurately bolstered.  If UGA wins, the WLOCP takes on heightened importance nationally, which is also good for Florida (assuming, of course, that Florida can win). 

Teasing the fact pattern further out, however, illustrates that an UGA victory is the best result for Florida for 2 reasons:  1) As before, it heightens the importance of the WLOCP, which will likely strengthen Florida’s SOS and place more voting eyes on Jax next week; and 2) An UGA win places LSU 2-games back of ‘Bama, which means that ‘Bama’s rear-naked-choke on the West is strengthened.  This in turn means that Florida is unlikely to rematch an angry and much improved LSU team in Atlanta, which is a good thing (ask FSU how that went in the 1996 Sugar Bowl). 

So, hunker down you hairy ‘Dawgs!  See you next week.

-So Sayeth the Shepherd

 

 

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