It all started in April when Gators head coach Dan Mullen pointed out that he had faintly raised spring game attendance numbers than in the recent past. After, it appeared that he had some conniving tricks up his sleeve to troll the Bulldogs again this offseason.
The attendance at the Florida spring game was announced to be approximately 39,476. Florida fans hinted that it had been 39 years since Georgia has won a national championship, and it had been 476 games since beating Notre Dame in the 1981 Sugar Bowl to win a title.
Which is true, but there is more.
Also this offseason, Mullen was speaking to reporters about transfers when he clearly took a shot at Georgia regarding how they handled the transfer situation of quarterback Justin Fields. Fields transferred to Ohio State from Georgia after just one season.
"I'd think we did a poor job recruiting if guys were coming in and then immediately walking out the door because it was something different than what they thought it would be and we lied to them during recruiting, or we sold them on a dream that wasn't true," Mullen said in a press conference.
Florida fans also had a field on Twitter when six UGA players were arrested in the offseason. Next, Gator fans started tweeting about how it had been 14,000 days since Georgia had last won a title. Former Florida players also chimed in and expressing their opinions and mocking UGA.
Yes, this is a thing.
Then, Orlando Sentinel writer Mike Bianchi thought it would be a brilliant idea to write an article claiming that Georgia "is the most overrated program in college football." He claimed that over the last two years Bulldog fans have been comparing the program to Alabama, and was sick of the bragging just because UGA had one good year.
Everything is fair game with rivalry smack talk, but the opinion of Florida fans seems to a be a lot misguided. And recently all the offseason Gator momentum has come to an abrupt halt.
In the last several weeks the Florida program has lost two blue-chip early enrollees and two blue-chip recruits, plus a defensive back's battery arrest.
The first departure was by four-star quarterback Jalon Jones, who entered the NCAA's transfer portal after being accused of sexual battery by two different women in April. Both complaints declined to press charges though.
The second pending exit came with Gator's top 2019 signee, cornerback Chris Steele, entered the transfer portal. It came out that Steele was listed in the police report regarding Jones, but was not involved in the incident. Steele also shared a dorm room with Jones and had requested he be moved but Florida staff told him it would not immediately happen.
Assuming Steele leaves, this will be a huge blow to Florida's defense. Steele spent time with the first-team defense in spring practice and was expected to be a key contributor as a true freshman this upcoming season.
Oh, the irony.
Both players were among the 17 blue-chip players that Mullen signed in a recruiting class that closed well to finish No. 9 nationally. Just when Florida fans thought they were gaining momentum on Georgia, the last couple weeks have altered that direction.
With all of this unforeseen drama, Florida's upcoming recruiting classes have also taken hits. The Gators missed out on Lakeland, Florida five-star 2020 running back Demarkcus Bowman, who committed to Clemson. And a few hours after Steele's decision became public, the No. 10 overall prospect in 2021, Ocala Vanguard defensive end Bryce Langston, decommitted from the program.
Add in Gator defensive back Brian Edwards' arrest on a complaint that he grabbed his girlfriend by the throat, and the bad news keeps continuing in Gainesville.
After Mullen and Gator fans' many direct shots at Georgia in the offspring, the karma is finally catching up to them.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has had a little fun in regards to Mullen and Florida fans' antics. A picture went viral of Smart at a charity golf tournament posing for a photo while standing on a Gator stuffed animal.
Smart was also asked Mullen's smack talk by ESPN's Paul Finebaum.
"I just don't know that there is a lot that we control by the words we say. Football is so much to me is played between the lines and the physicality of the people that play it. We are going to play a brand of football at Georgia that is physical and tough. We do not really want to talk to the opponents.
"If I go out and do that as a coach, how do I look to my players? It is not something that I enjoy doing or want to do. I just want to go work really hard and grind and play the game and may the best team win.
"I just don't think you need that. That is not going to make Georgia great. We are not going to move up in the rankings by what I say. We are going to do it by how we play. We want to talk with our helmets. That is what we always talk about – we want to play a physical brand of football and not do it with our mouthpiece."
I think the best thing for Mullen and Florida fans' to do is keep quiet because their program is spiraling into a dumpster fire just like Tennessee's did after the 2017 season. Either way, this year's annual Georgia-Florida game will be very interesting.
