Kirby Smart is pretty sure that late Georgia coach Vince Dooley was looking down on the No. 1Dawgs in the first half of their 42-20 win over the Florida Gators.
The Georgia coach who led the team to a national championship in 1980 passed away on Friday. The man was 90.
Smart said he knew the Dooleys were together. It was a big deal for us to win that game. Vince has meant a lot to our university and our program. In honor of him and his family, it was special. It was difficult to get that to happen.
A lot of Georgia mistakes allowed the Gators to cut the deficit to eight points after Anthony Richardson threw a 78-yard touchdown to Xzavier Henderson.
A personal foul helped set up Florida's first touchdown of the second half, and the Georgia tailback lost a fumbled ball on the first drive of the second half. The Gators kicked a field goal to make it 28-13.
The quarterback underthrew a pass on the next possession. Richardson and Henderson connected on the third play after the coverage in the secondary was broken.
Georgia beat Florida for the fifth time in the past six meetings with a touchdown on each of its next two possessions.
Bennett said he was sure that the coach was watching. Sometimes you take what they give you and other times you give them what they want.
Smart knows that his team will have to clean up their act before the Tennessee game. It will be the first top-five game at the stadium in 25 years, and the winner of that game will be in control of the SEC East.
Smart said that any win gives confidence. I am happy with the wins. It's hard to get a win in the SEC when you beat Florida. They are tough and physical. I'm proud of them and how they played.
When the team landed in Jacksonville on Friday, Smart didn't know about the death of his coach. Smart said he got a text from the son of a coach.
The phones started dinging and the text messages started coming through when we took off. We knew that it was going to happen. I was able to visit with him a few weeks ago. I didn't know that it would be the last time, but I remember he was in the training room and we talked for a bit.
Georgia defeated Alabama 33-18 in last year's SEC championship game to win its first national title in 41 years.
Smart said that her children had no idea that she was around him. They were wondering who the coach was. Who is this elderly man? They now know what he stood for and what his family did for the school. I have a lot of admiration for him.
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