To quote the strategic mastermind of the Rebel Alliance’s assault on the second Death Star, “it’s a trap!” Admiral Akbar saw it early.

So should the Bulldog faithful. Especially my fellow natural-born pessimists who grew up in the congregation of the Church of Vince Dooley and Larry Munson.

You never expect to hear that about Georgia-Florida. After all, this is one of the classic rivalries in college football, a setting and scene unlike any other. It’s the cocktail party. From 1992 through 2023, the divisional era of the Southeastern Conference, either the Gators or Bulldogs advanced to the SEC Championship Game out of the East 24 times in 32 seasons. That includes six trips in the last seven years for Georgia under the watch of native son Kirby Smart – a first for any coach and program in SEC annals. Yes, not even Steve Spurrier’s Gators nor the Stampeding Pachyderm of Nick Saban or Gene Stallings punched a title tilt ticket six times in a seven season stretch.

But Kirby’s Canines have.

Along the way, the Bulldogs famously won back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022, and have finished in the top seven of the final national rankings while appearing in a major bowl game seven consecutive campaigns. Georgia posted regular season records of 11-1 for three straight years from 2017 through 2019. The Bulldogs made college football history with three successive 12-0 regular season records from 2021 through 2023. No team in history had ascended to 12-0 at any point in a season for three consecutive years.

Meanwhile, Florida has posted a losing record in three consecutive years. The Gators have had a losing mark five times in the last 11 seasons. While Smart has ascended to legendary future Hall of Fame status at his alma mater, the Gators —not counting interim head coaches— have employed four different head coaches since Urban Meyer “retired” from Florida for the second time after the 2010 season. Soon after, though he berated a reporter for suggesting he could wear any team’s colors other than the orange and blue, Meyer became the head coach at Ohio State.

Digressing, over the last seven seasons of this Kirby Smart dynasty, Georgia has gone 6-1 against Florida. The Gators beat the Bulldogs 44-28 in 2020, the Covid campaign.

That was a signature win for Florida in the Dan Mullen era. The Gators had gone 10-3 in 2018 and 11-2 in 2019, getting back to the top ten. The win over Georgia propelled Florida to the SEC Championship Game in the hunt for a playoff berth. But along the way, a shoe was thrown and Florida lost to LSU. The Gators then fell to eventual national champion Alabama in Atlanta, and with a slew of players “opting out,” aka quitting, Florida was humiliated 55-20 by Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl. The Gators finished the 2020 season 8-4.

The next time Georgia played Florida, the Bulldogs scored three touchdowns in the final two minutes of the first half and pulled away for a 34-7 triumph en route to the first of those two sacred national championships. Before the month of November was done, Mullen was out as Florida’s head coach. The Gators lost to Central Florida 29-17 in the Gasparilla Bowl to finish 6-7. It is head spinning how quickly things unraveled in less than a calendar year.

Following that loss to the Gators, Georgia beat Mississippi State and won four straight to close out the 2020 season, starting an incredible run in which the Bulldogs have won 52 of the past 55 games.

Florida turned to Billy Napier from Louisiana, formerly known as Louisiana-Lafayette. Napier, a product of the famed Nick Saban coaching tree, led the Ragin’ Cajuns to the Sun Belt Conference championship and a 13-1 record.  Two straight losing seasons followed, and an angry Gator fan base —some of whom took to the internet to refer to their coach on fan message boards as “Sun Belt Billy”— has been hungry for Lane Kiffin, the return of Meyer or maybe even “the guy at Indiana;” especially after Florida had underwhelming performances in The Swamp against Miami and Texas A&M in the season’s first three weeks.

Well, just as Napier’s coaching tombstone seemed to be on rush delivery, Florida has come back to win three of four, with the one setback coming in overtime at Tennessee. In their last game, the Gators annihilated Kentucky 48-20 in Gainesville. The same Kentucky team that Georgia beat 13-12 in Lexington in September.

The Dogs are flying high. The 30-15 victory at then top-ranked Texas will long be remembered by the Georgia faithful. It was Smart’s 100th career head coaching victory and has thrust the Bulldogs back into the spotlight of college football conjecture. You can make the case that these two arch rivals have the two most difficult schedules in the country. For Georgia, this one is squeezed between the game in Austin and a trip to Oxford to take on Ole Miss —those trips and limited tickets causing a great deal of consternation for the Georgia faithful.

Taking Florida for granted would be a big mistake. Smart is certainly hammering that point across to his players.

Georgia better be ready. So much can change week to week, especially in this era of college football. And this hungry Gator team is looking to make its mark.

The Bulldogs were clearly the hunters against the Longhorns. That same fight and hunger is a must in Jacksonville, or the Dogs could be Gator bait in murky playoff waters.