No. 1 Dawgs dedicate win to late coach Dooley

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Kirby Smart is beauteous definite precocious Georgia manager Vince Dooley was looking down connected the No. 1 Bulldogs connected Saturday and astir apt enjoyed the archetypal fractional -- but not truthful overmuch the 2nd -- successful a 42-20 victory implicit the rival Florida Gators.

Dooley, who guided the Bulldogs to a nationalist title successful 1980, died connected Friday astatine his location successful Athens, Georgia. He was 90.

"To the Dooleys backmost location successful Athens, I cognize they are together," Smart said. "It meant a batch for america to triumph that crippled for them. All that Vince has meant to our assemblage and specified an ambassador of our programme and truly each of assemblage football. ... He has meant truthful overmuch to america and successful grant of him and their family, it was special. It was a pugnacious clip for that to happen."

After taking a 28-3 pb astatine the half, a multitude of Georgia errors allowed the Gators to chopped the shortage to lone 8 points aft Florida backmost Anthony Richardson threw a 78-yard touchdown to Xzavier Henderson with 3:31 near successful the 3rd quarter.

A Georgia idiosyncratic foul helped acceptable up Florida's archetypal touchdown of the 2nd half, and past Bulldogs tailback Kenny McIntosh mislaid a fumble connected the archetypal play of the adjacent drive. Gators antiaircraft backmost Trey Dean III recovered the shot astatine Georgia's 27, and Florida ended up kicking a tract extremity to marque it 28-13.

On the Bulldogs' adjacent possession, backmost Stetson Bennett underthrew a pass, which was intercepted by Florida's Amari Burney. Richardson connected with Henderson 3 plays later, aft the Bulldogs busted sum successful the secondary.

Georgia scored touchdowns connected each of its adjacent 2 possessions to extremity the menace and bushed Florida for the 5th clip successful the past six meetings.

"I'm definite Coach Dooley enjoyed that; I'm definite helium was watching," Bennett said. "You know, sometimes you instrumentality what they springiness you and sometimes you springiness them what they're going to take."

Smart knows his squad volition person to cleanable things up earlier adjacent week's showdown against No. 3 Tennessee astatine Sanford Stadium. That crippled volition spell a agelong mode successful deciding which squad volition triumph the SEC East, and it volition beryllium the archetypal top-five matchup played astatine Sanford Stadium since the No. 4 Bulldogs mislaid 13-7 to Bo Jackson and No. 3 Auburn successful 1983, ending a 23-game SEC triumph streak, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

"Any win, immoderate triumph exudes confidence," Smart said. "You guys knock the wins, I americium large with the wins. In the SEC, erstwhile you bushed Florida, immoderate win, they are hard to travel by. They are tough, they are physical, they are hard-fought. I americium arrogant of them and the mode our guys played."

Smart, a erstwhile Georgia antiaircraft back, said helium didn't larn of Dooley's decease until the squad landed successful Jacksonville connected Friday. Smart said helium received a substance from Dooley's son, Derek, a erstwhile Tennessee caput coach.

"We took disconnected and were not alert of thing and past the phones started dinging and the substance messages started coming through," Smart said. "We knew that it was benignant of imminent. I got to sojourn with him a small past week and sat down. He was successful the grooming country and we got to speech for a while, and of people I did not cognize that it would beryllium the past time, but that is astir apt my fondest memory."

Smart said Dooley was successful a suite with his household during past year's SEC title crippled and CFP National Championship, successful which Georgia defeated Alabama 33-18 to triumph its archetypal nationalist rubric successful 41 years.

"My kids person gotten to beryllium astir him, and it's comic due to the fact that my kids had nary idea," Smart said. "They were like, 'Who is this aged coach? Who is this aged guy?' Now they cognize the past and what each helium stood for and what his household did for this university. Got a batch of respect for him."