Georgia players remember the bloodiest of Tuesdays: Florida 2021
Saturdays in Athens are special. Tuesdays in Athens are bloody. It’s just the way of Georgia Football under the direction of Kirby Smart.
Georgia players at the NFL Combine last week remembered one Tuesday practice in particular when looking back on their collegiate careers: Tuesday, October 26, 2021. It was Florida week, and the previous year’s loss wasn’t sitting all too well with Smart. If you need a reminder on how that one hit him, listen to the halftime speech for the 2021 game with Georgia up 24-0 but the head coach still wanting more.
“Definitely Florida, 100% — especially after previously losing to them my freshman year. Me personally, I wasn’t able to play, but man, it just felt good of just being able to see the energy that my teammates brought to that team. Man, I just felt like it was that Tuesday of 2021, I feel like that was probably one of the most physical practices that I ever played against, man,” Kelee Ringo said when asked about any of Georgia’s rivalries that stand out in particular. “Just o-lineman covering down like no other, linebackers coming down on running backs like crazy. Receivers blocking downfield on us 15-20 yards down the field. Man, it got greatly physical. I feel like when you’re able to practice like that and continue to keep that energy throughout the entire week, great things can happen for you on Saturdays.”
“The Florida week of the 2021 year, and this past year, I can just remember when we got to team run and James Cook, my old roommate, and Chris Smith, the first rep of it was a collision,” Kearis Jackson added in his memories of that practice. “From the moment I knew we were ready to go play. Of course you heard the halftime speech that Coach Smart gave us. It’s been trending ever since. He knows how to get his guys going, and I’m very thankful to have played under him. I feel like he is one of the best coaches in the nation with what he does and how he prepares our mindset.”
Georgia jumped on Florida in the second quarter. James Cook scored an 11-yard touchdown after a turnover forced by Nolan Smith. Then, after another Smith turnover, it was Jackson who found the end zone for his only touchdown of that season from 36 yards out. The cap things off, the defense struck again with Nakobe Dean’s 50-yard pick six of Anthony Richardson with just seconds to go in the half.
Emory Jones scored a touchdown with 2:49 to go in the game to get Florida on the board and prevent the program’s first shutout since 1988. Zamir White responded by ripping off a 42-yard run that brought the score to it’s final of 34-7. Still, even with a four-score win over the Gators, Georgia players wanted more, and it’s easy to see why after hearing the stories of what that week looked like on the practice fields in Athens.
