Greg McElroy speaks from experience when it comes to SEC rivalry games, having played quarterback for Nick Saban at Alabama.
He lived and breathed those bitter rivalries while playing for the Crimson Tide, so he’s the perfect person to break down Saturday’s battle in Atlanta between Florida and Georgia. The longtime SEC rivals won’t play in Jacksonville this year like usual, so they’ll be taking their annual battle at around this time of year indoors to the unfriendly confines of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
It’ll be the third-ranked Dawgs (6-1, 4-1 SEC) against the 17th-ranked Gators (5-2, 3-2 SEC) in a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on ABC, and there was a list of issues regarding the game for McElroy to break down in his Always College Football podcast earlier this week.
When it came down it, when it came down to making his pick for the game, McElroy went with the favored team that wears red and black. He went with Georgia to keep plugging away toward a possible SEC championship 3-peat with a victory over up-and-down Florida.
Both the Dawgs and Gators are coming off bye weeks, with Georgia trying to bounce back from its first loss of the season 2 weeks ago against Auburn and Florida trying to build on its upset win at Texas from a couple weeks back. McElroy believes the Bulldogs will find their game again in Atlanta on Halloween.
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“I’m taking Georgia to win the game, 34-20. I think Florida did look really impressive on that road trip to Austin, came home with a massive souvenir, but this is a different animal,” McElroy said. “Georgia will now be healthy coming out of the bye, and I think they’ve been excited about the opportunity to host this game in Atlanta for a very long time.”
While McElroy has his own thoughts on the Florida-Georgia showdown in Atlanta, here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the annual rivalry game that this year will take place indoors instead of at its normal location in Jacksonville:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
