“If you know your enemy and you know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself you will succumb in every battle.” – The Art of War (Sun Tzu)

By all accounts The World’s Largest Outdoor Party should be nothing more than a coronation for the Georgia Bulldogs in a sound beating of their hated rival Florida. Beyond being a 14.5-point favorite, the Bulldogs are a better team and don’t have the same air of negativity surrounding their program that Florida does. And that was before Gators coach Jim McElwain disclosed that members of the team and his family have received death threats or the recent speculation that McElwain could leave Gainesville behind and continue coaching in a less stressful situation at Oregon State.

Either way, Saturday’s game will only tell part of the story of where the respective programs are currently. Georgia appears ready to challenge Alabama for the supremacy of the SEC and a spot at the Playoff table. The Bulldogs’ sample size is small though and last week should have been another indicator of the separation between the West and East divisions. But until results say otherwise, Georgia looks to be for real. And if it doesn’t happen this season, the Bulldogs’ recruiting classes in 2018 and 2019 give the impression that’s it’s only a matter of time before Georgia is in a position to win their first national championship since 1980.

Florida is .500 on the season and needed a Hail Mary and a fourth-quarter meltdown from Kentucky to accomplish that. The Gators can’t seem to win at home or against ranked teams. The offense ranges from occasionally inoffensive to downright ineffective. Feleipe Franks looks less like the future and more like a placeholder at quarterback but no one knows who’s place he’s holding. The recruiting classes look fine, but they always look fine at Florida. Getting those players to reach their potential or even stay out of trouble is another story.

Right now Georgia is clearly winning the war against Florida. But winning doesn’t always equate to winning the battle. Plainly put the Florida-Georgia game is never above a surprising result.

In recent years there have been many cases where the program that was best set up for upcoming success failed to get the job done on that final Saturday in October.

1989: Georgia 17, No. 20 Florida 10 – Florida won six of its first eight and was ranked as high as No. 12 before coming into the Georgia game ranked 20th and ready for a slide. The Bulldogs won a rather listless noon game, their third consecutive over Florida, and proceeded to lose the rest of their games that season to finish 6-6. Florida lost four of their final five, finished 7-5 and dumped the rest of Galen Hall’s remaining staff (he was fired after the fifth game) to replace them with some guy named Steve Spurrier to change the balance of power in this series.

1992: No. 20 Florida 26, No. 7 Georgia 24 – Bulldogs fans were looking to this Halloween matchup to finally get one over on the arrogant Spurrier after losing two in a row. They dispatched All-American running back Garrison Hearst to do damage, but Florida’s defense shut down Hearst, and Shane Mathews threw for over 300 yards as the Gators won their third in a row and Spurrier’s favorite to this date. Georgia wouldn’t lose again but lost the tiebreaker to Florida for the right to play in the inaugural SEC title game. Both teams finished in the Top 10 (Georgia 8th, Florida 10th).

1997: No. 15 Georgia 37, No. 6 Florida 17 – By this point Spurrier’s win streak against Georgia was at seven and the previous three meetings were decided by the lopsided scores of 52-14, 52-17 and 47-7. Florida was coming off a national title and had won 30 of its past 33 games.

There was no reason to think Georgia had a shot at the Florida juggernaut, but Mike Bobo, Robert Edwards and Hines Ward had other ideas. The Bulldogs jumped on the Gators early and never let up, earning a win that was as sweet as any for UGA. Florida, which lost to LSU three weeks earlier, was eliminated from the SEC East with the loss and would not challenge to win a fifth consecutive SEC title. (Check the video at about the 12:30 mark where some guy games an interception … the name might sound familiar)

2002: Florida 20, No. 5 Georgia 13 – My good friend Neil Blackmon cites this game as one of his favorites. Georgia was undefeated and rolling along in Mark Richt’s second year. Florida was unranked and stumbling under first-year coach Ron Zook. A rare night game in Jacksonville gave the 50-50 crowd all day to get sauced and when it was all said and done Florida rode the arm of Rex Grossman to win their fifth straight game in the rivalry and provide the only blemish the Bulldogs would suffer that season en route to a 13-1 record and No. 3 ranking.

2007: No. 20 Georgia 42, No. 9 Florida 30 – Richt was 1-5 against the Gators at this point and tired of being pushed around. Urban Meyer was in his third year at Florida, coming off of a BCS championship in 2006 and equipped with eventual Heisman winner Tim Tebow. Richt wanted his team to make statement early. They did.

Florida actually responded to this drive with a touchdown of its own (Georgia kicked off from the 7-yard line) but the message was sent and the Gators were probably a little shocked that a team they were so used to kicking around was ready to kick back. Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno were on point all day to win this entertaining shootout.

2014: Florida 38, No. 9 Georgia 20 – In a role reversal, Georgia was on a three-game win streak and Gators head coach Will Muschamp was actually 0-7 in the series after losing four when he was player at Georgia. Muschamp was only coaching in spirit by this point as the school announced he would not be retained following a 42-13 home loss to Missouri, but the Gators played with an unexpected pride. Quarterback Treon Harris only completed three of six passes but the Gators rushed for over 400 yards with Kelvin Taylor and Matt Jones carrying the load and giving their embattled coach his only win to date against Georgia.

In each of the above listed games the winning team was generally headed on a downward slope compared to the losing team. In some cases the battle changed the war, in others it was just a temporary roadblock.

But in every case it was the team that appeared to be down and out proving they had more than enough fight to ruin their hated rivals season.

Bulldogs and Gators fans know how unpredictable this rivalry can be and as much fun as Friday night is for the fans of the team expected to win, there’s an equal amount of angst from those fans when they wake up from their hangovers Saturday morning and head to EverBank Field expecting the best but wise enough to know that the worst could lie ahead.