Florida Gators' Situation is a Warning Sign to UGA, SEC

Get our insider newsletter today

The answer from Kirby Smart was short, simple and most importantly, candid. 

“You’re one day away, one test away, one situation away from a possible situation like Florida’s in,” Smart said bluntly. 

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, Florida has officially postponed all team activities after an increase in positive COVID tests. They said they would reevaluate Wednesday to see the true severity of the situation. 

So far, Georgia has avoided the kind of situations that schools like Florida, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and NFL teams like the Titans and the Patriots have been slammed by. But any day, any minute, this virus can come through and put you on an uneven playing field. 

Smart sees what is happening here; he’s taking note of it, and he knows he and the Bulldogs aren’t impervious to it. 

“We feel like our players are doing a good job,” Smart said in his Tuesday presser. “But I’ll be honest with you, when they’re not here at the facility, I don’t always know what they’re doing. You’re one exposure, one outbreak away from losing some guys.” 

Not only guys, but valuable practice time as well.  Georgia has escaped the worries and dangers of an outbreak—so far. 

Imagine how damaging it can be to lose a day—even an hour—of practice in a week. For Florida, fortunately, LSU has proved to a dud of a team. If they were the top-10 team they were thought up preseason, the Gators might be in for some serious trouble this weekend. Even besides that fact, this certainly doesn’t make things easier on Florida.

Against Alabama, however, that day, hour, even minute lost, changes the tide of the game for the worse. And that isn’t even mentioning the possible loss of contributing players.

Thankfully, Georgia hasn’t seen that impact yet. Not a lot of SEC teams have. But we still have a lot more time to go in this season. No matter what kind of defense Georgia has up, we have to understand the possibility of the team getting hit, and what kind of impact it can have on the season.