Georgia understands importance of next week's rivalry game against Florida

ATHENS -- Once again, the SEC East race will rely heavily on the outcome in next week's game between Georgia and Florida.

Since Mark Richt took over the Bulldogs in 2001, this game, held annually in Jacksonville, Florida, has held much importance when it comes to getting to Atlanta for the SEC championship game. A year ago, Georgia was in the driver's seat of the division heading into the game, only to lose 38-20. As a result, Missouri, a team Georgia beat 34-0 earlier in the season, ended up in the conference title game.

In 2012, Georgia, already with one loss, squeaked out a 17-9 victory in a defensive struggle, which helped propel it to the SEC championship game. In 2008 and 2009, Florida scored big wins over the Bulldogs en route to reaching the conference title game -- winning it in 2008 (before taking the national title) and losing in 2009.

With the game coming just after the halfway point of the regular season, Richt knows how important this game is for both programs.

"Where it is in the season, you're hoping it's a huge game for the race to Atlanta," Richt said. "You know it's going to be a big game no matter what, whether everybody is 4-0 in league play or 0-4. It's going to be a big game when Georgia plays Florida. We know that part. You want it to be as meaningful as possible. You want it to be on the national stage. You want the game to be relevant in regard to trying to get to the SEC championship game. That's where we're at right now.

"That's a good thing. Both teams know how important it is."

Georgia and Florida both are on bye weeks and have an equal amount of time to prepare. For Georgia, this week has been focused on cleaning up mistakes made so far. The Bulldogs have done some work preparing for Florida, but that won't start in full force until Sunday, after the players return from a three-day break.

Georgia is 5-2 and will be back in control of its quest for an SEC East title if Alabama defeats Tennessee on Saturday. If the Volunteers do get a third conference loss, Georgia can take the division by winning the remainder of its conference games.

While the players, at least to some degree, will pay attention to the Alabama-Tennessee game, their primary focus is already on Florida.

"Right now, we're focusing on the team in front of us and that's Florida," defensive end Sterling Bailey said. "We're not worried about the big picture. If we take care of what's in front of us, the future and the outcome will take care of itself."

Last year's game against the Gators is still fresh on Georgia's mind, considering how it played out. The Gators only attempted six passes -- completing three -- and ran for a total of 418 yards. While running back Matt Jones (25 carries, 192 yards) is now in the NFL with the Washington Redskins, Kelvin Taylor (25 carries, 197 yards) will look to replicate what took place a year ago.

The Bulldogs were whipped in the running game and know they can't allow those numbers to occur again if they want to win and remain in the SEC title game picture.

"We don't want what happened last year to happen this year," Bailey said. "There's a lot riding on this game."

This story was originally published October 23, 2015 at 2:22 PM with the headline "Georgia understands importance of next week's rivalry game against Florida ."