College football’s top 5 matchups of Week 9

2. No. 1 Georgia vs. Florida – Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET, CBS

There are a lot of storied rivalries across the SEC, and Georgia battling Florida is certainly one of them. The two programs have matched up exactly 100 times, and outside of 1943, they have played each other in every season going back to 1926. There have been a few eras of dominance by both teams, including Georgia winning 8 of the last 12 games in the series which has helped them to a 54-44-2 record against Florida overall.

The Bulldogs will of course be favored again going into this year’s matchup as the No. 1 team in the country. Currently, Georgia is on a school-record 24-game winning streak, and has spent 19 weeks straight at No. 1 in the AP poll. Even after losing star tight end Brock Bowers to injury, the Bulldogs handled Vanderbilt relatively easily which followed nice wins at Auburn and at home over Kentucky. The team features the sixth-ranked total defense in the country, while the offense has made a seamless transition to Carson Beck as its starting quarterback who has thrown for over 2,100 yards this year. However, with games against Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee coming up, Georgia will have to be sure to not overlook its scrappy rival in Gainesville. 

The Gators are 5-2 on the year with road losses to Utah and Kentucky, and have had nice conference wins over Tennessee, and most recently, South Carolina. Florida will face ranked teams in four of its final five games, and have a chance for a huge win on Saturday. The Gators don’t necessarily do one thing extremely well, but are solid on both sides of the ball. Transfer quarterback Graham Mertz is coming off arguably his best game against the Gamecocks and has thrown for almost 2,000 yards this year. A strong performance by him and Florida’s running back duo of Montrell Johnson Jr. and Trevor Etienne could give the Gators an upset chance.