The 97th meeting between Georgia and Florida — and the programs’ 86th meeting in Jacksonville — is just 4 days away.

Sadly, College GameDay won’t be there; it will be in Tennessee for Memphis vs. SMU. But we don’t need ESPN’s traveling pregame show there to make it a big game, do we? Safe to say that the Cocktail Party showdown between the No. 6 Gators and the No. 8 Bulldogs will be the headline event of Week 10.

And it’s rare to have both teams ranked in the top 10. While this is the 2nd time in a row, the previous time before that was 2008, when Florida was No. 5 and Georgia was No. 8. The 1999 game, which saw No. 5 Florida beat No. 10 Georgia 30-14, counts as the only other time in the past 20 years that the Cocktail Party has featured both ranked 10th or better in the AP poll.

Kirby Smart, I’m sure, grew up watching the game as a kid growing up not far from the Georgia border. And that naturally meant that he was a Gators fan?

Well, maybe not.

One thing that is true: It’s a big game, and the stakes are high for both teams involved. Here are 3 matchups, in particular, that I’m watching Saturday that might determine whether this game goes in a positive or negative direction for the Bulldogs.

Georgia’s pass rush against Kyle Trask and Florida’s offensive line

Georgia is not a prolific pass-rushing team. The Dawgs have 16.0 sacks, but 6.0 were against Murray State, 4.0 against Arkansas State and 3.0 against Tennessee. Individually, Azeez Ojulari leads the team with 3.5 sacks, while Quay Walker, Tyler Clark, Jermaine Johnson, Nolan Smith and Channing Tindall each have 1.5.

That group has to be salivating at the fact that Kyle Trask has been sacked 13 times. He was dropped twice against South Carolina, LSU and Tennessee while Auburn took him down 4 times. Even Towson — Towson! — sacked him 3 times.

While this won’t be a 6-sack performance in the vein of Murray State, if the Dawgs can’t get to Trask consistently, they’ll likely come away disappointed. Like most QBs, Trask is far more dangerous when he has time to scan his options. And he’s accurate. Given time, he has the ability to make a team pay. In the Gators’ loss to LSU, he was 23-of-39 for 310 yards and 3 touchdowns versus just 1 interception despite being sacked twice.

And it’s a strong receiving corps that has caught Smart’s eye as he prepares for the game.

“They’ve become really explosive,” Smart said in his weekly press conference. “They’ve got as deep a group of wide receivers as I’ve seen anywhere from top to bottom. They’ve got 6, 7, 8 guys playing wide receiver that are really good players. An elite tight end, one of the best in the country.”

That tight end is Kyle Pitts, who has 35 catches for 391 yards and 4 touchdowns. He had a monster game against LSU with 5 catches for 108 yards, one of 4 games where he’s finished with 62 or more receiving yards. Two other players — Freddie Swain and Van Jefferson — have yardage totals this season of 339 and 331, respectively, while combining for 7 touchdowns. So there’s plenty of ways for Trask to do damage if he’s allowed to.

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Georgia’s receivers against the Florida defensive backs

Florida defensive coordinator Todd Grantham gushed with praise over his primary cornerback, CJ Henderson, in an interview with Gator Country last week.

A little gamesmanship as Grantham prepares to face the program he coached at earlier this decade under Mark Richt? Maybe. But he isn’t the only one that’s praising Henderson’s talent. Neil Blackmon wrote about him a few weeks ago; be sure to check out the numbers from last year if you want a little more food for thought. It’s safe to say that Jake Fromm will have few potential options to throw the ball downfield, certainly not the way of Henderson and likely not toward Marco Wilson either, who’s a talented player in his own right.

Fromm’s options in the middle of the field will be limited as well, as the Gators’ entire defensive unit has accounted for 12 interceptions. With that said, even with a clean pocket to work with, it won’t mean anything for him if he’s not able to find anyone to get the ball to. Keep an eye on the gameplan Grantham employs here as it will certainly be a key matchup to take note of through the course of the game.

Georgia’s offensive line against the Florida defensive front

The Dawgs’ offensive linemen versus the 3-4 defense of the Gators will be another matchup to watch, primarily because this Gators team is so good at sacking the quarterback: they’ve recorded 29.0, tied for 6th in the country.

The names to pay attention to are certainly Jeremiah Moon and Jon Greenard, who have combined for 13.0 tackles for a loss and 7 sacks from the Buck linebacker slot. Jabari Zuniga, another player to watch, has 3.0 sacks. Zuniga and Greenard are coming off injuries.

As far as the ground game, I expect Georgia offensive coordinator James Coley to test a Florida defense that’s allowed more than 200 rushing yards in back-to-back games. The Dawgs have run it 40 or more times in 4 of their 7 games this season — not surprising considering how good the running game has been; their total of 236.9 yards rushing per game is 16th in FBS.

The concern, of course, is load management. D’Andre Swift has never had more than 23 carries in his career, so a healthy Brian Herrien will be a major factor to help spell the Bulldogs’ leading rusher.

A couple of potential X-factors in the running game? Zamir White and James Cook, who might receive a few touches themselves to keep the Gators on their toes. But it won’t mean anything if the Dawgs’ offensive line can’t gain traction against a rested Gators defense.