The Bulldogs have become annoyingly comfortable playing from behind. Down late to Florida in Jacksonville, in a game that had every SEC-after-dark plot twist but sunshine, Kirby Smart’s team did the one thing that separates contenders from the rest of the league: they didn’t flinch. They won a game they easily could’ve lost because the roster Georgia brought to the river is built for long games, not highlight reels.

    Florida threw its best, and for a chunk of the second half, Georgia was the one on the back foot. That’s where this roster shows its value. When you can roll out Gunner Stockton at quarterback, a redshirt junior who has already piloted comebacks this fall, and surround him with a buffet line of receivers, you don’t panic. You just run the offense the way it’s been drilled since March. You trust your guys to separate, your backs to pass protect, and your quarterback to take the boring throw that keeps the drive alive.

    The turning point in Jacksonville wasn’t the final drive; it was the one before it. Georgia trailed 23-20, and Florida had just burned a ton of clock to force Georgia to drive it the length of the field. That’s where lesser teams rushes, take a shot on 2nd-and-10, and hand the ball right back.

    Georgia didn’t.

    Stockton checked into a run for Josh McCray to punish a light box. Then he found Branch on a short route to the boundary, trusting the junior’s after-the-catch ability. Then came the tight ends, because Georgia will spam you with tight ends until you admit defeat, Delp dragging across, Luckie flexed just enough to force Florida to widen.

    This is the quiet part of resiliency: you have to be patient enough to be unexciting. Georgia was. That drive didn’t score, but it flipped field position, forced Florida to cover 80 yards again, and gave the defense one more chance to make a stop.

    Let’s go ahead and say this out loud: Georgia’s offense looks different with Stockton as year three unfolds. He’s not playing hero ball; he’s playing veteran ball. That matters in games like this. Jacksonville is always weird. Momentum behaves like it’s had a few drinks. You need someone who has seen enough football to be able to ignore it.

    On the winning drive, Stockton didn’t force throws down the seam. He hit Dillon Bell on time. He let Noah Thomas be 6’5” and useful. He used the backs, Nate Frazier, Dwight Phillips Jr., as actual receiving options, not “in case of emergency” outlets. And the line, which is massive even by Georgia standards, gave him the pocket time to survey instead of scramble. You could tell Georgia trusted its protections; you don’t call those longer-developing plays without trust.

    The payoff was classic Georgia: Florida tired, Georgia didn’t. After leaning on the Gators for three quarters, the Dawgs could still bring in fresh targets, such as London Humphreys, Lawson Luckie, and even a freshman wideout like Talyn Taylor, if needed, and the drops in speed never showed. Depth is how you become resilient. Talent is the headline; depth is the reason the headline keeps being true.

    It would be rude not to mention the other half of this equation. Georgia’s fourth-quarter defense looked like Georgia’s fourth-quarter defense is supposed to look. The front stopped getting moved. The edge group got off blocks quicker. And the back end, which might be the sneaky strength of this whole team, closed out. That’s culture, not coincidence.

    This is the kind of finish Kirby Smart will put on a loop in the team meeting room. “This is why you run in July. This is why you rotate in September. This is why the freshmen travel.” It’s easier to preach resilience when you have film of it actually happening.

    Let’s zoom out. The SEC in 2025 isn’t about who has the best 20 plays; it’s about who survives the last 20 minutes. Georgia just beat Florida in a game where the Bulldogs spent real time trailing. You can win shootouts. You can win bully-ball. Now you can win chase games. That’s a playoff profile.

    It also keeps Georgia on schedule. Rivalry wins stabilize seasons. You can drop a game to a West team, have a weird day in Lexington, or even take an ugly road win where the offense never fully clicks, but you cannot let Florida steal your momentum.

    Georgia’s message to the rest of the SEC was simple: you can lead us, but you’d better finish us. Because this team, with this 2025 depth chart, has enough offense to chase, enough defense to close, and enough stubbornness to make a one-score deficit feel like a suggestion.

    Florida did a lot right. Georgia did more later. That’s the difference between a good team and one that thinks December is its natural habitat.

    That’s the story!