Thursday will be a special day on “DawgNation Daily” as we celebrate a milestone for our show.
Years ago, I introduced the idea that a good Georgia fan is a Gator hater first and foremost. UGA has a lot of rivals, but in my mind, it was important to view Florida as the top rival.
I had seen Florida beat UGA too much. I was simply tired of losing to them.
So we originally started a Gator Hater Countdown after the 2016 game counting down each day until next year’s game with the mission in mind to end the losing streak. I could’ve never imagined how well it would work out.
So much so, that now what was once the Gator Hater Countdown has evolved into the Gator Hater Updater. We now count how many days it has been since Florida has beaten Georgia, and on Thursday that count will reach 2,000 days.
To me, that’s incredible. I know in recent years Georgia has mostly left Florida in the dust as it won national championships and became a regular fixture in the College Football Playoff. Yet, even with that being true, we shouldn’t lose sight of how eager coach Kirby Smart seems to be to vanquish rivals on the way to that championship success.
Beating Florida seems to be as important to him as it is to all of us, and the regularity with which that has happened recently makes this a great time to be a Gator hater.
Check out the rest of our coverage below.
Trivia time
What was Georgia football’s first mascot?
Answer is at the bottom of the newsletter.
Smart admits how ‘painful’ Gabe Harris injury was
Gabe Harris thought he was fine. The Georgia outside linebacker knew he had a foot injury he picked up in Georgia’s 28-7 win over Alabama, a game Harris played well in.
Smart had to deliver some very bad news to his promising defender.
“That was probably one of the most painful conversations I had to have after the SEC championship where he was peaking,” Smart said in an appearance on “McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning” on WJOX 94.5. “Greg (McElroy) talked about us playing better. He played better down the stretch when he got confidence, and he played in that game with a very serious foot injury in the Alabama game.”
The Alabama game would be Harris’ last of the 2025 season. Harris missed Georgia’s season-ending 39-34 loss to Ole Miss and a good chunk of spring practice as well.
With how well Harris was playing at the end of Georgia’s 2025 season, it’s very fair to wonder what kind of difference he might have made for the Bulldogs in the College Football Playoff.
“He was like, ‘I’ll be fine, Coach. I’ll get a couple weeks here and get ready to go,’” Smart said. “And then when we had to tell him he was out and had to have surgery because he couldn’t play with it, he was crushed.”
As disappointing as the end of the 2025 season was for Harris and Georgia, the Bulldogs were able to bring back Harris for the 2026 season.
ESPN analyst makes it clear Georgia needs more from its tight ends
One of Georgia’s biggest question marks entering the 2026 season is the wide receiver position.
The Bulldogs saw Zachariah Branch and Colbie Young get drafted in last week’s NFL draft. Dillon Bell and Noah Thomas signed with the Minnesota Vikings and Cincinnati Bengals, respectively, as undrafted free agents.
One way to possibly offset the questions around the wide receiver position would be greater involvement from the tight end position.
“Georgia has some question marks at receiver after four key contributors left, so perhaps it’s time for the Bulldogs to get back to throwing to their tight ends,” according to ESPN’s Mark Schlabach. “Georgia is loaded at the position with Lawson Luckie, Jaden Reddell and Elyiss Williams coming back. The Bulldogs also signed Kaiden Prothro of Bowdon, Georgia, who was the No. 1 tight end in the Class of 2026, according to ESPN Recruiting.”
Georgia’s tight ends had only 43 receptions last year, and that was with third-round pick Oscar Delp in the fold. He was taken by the New Orleans Saints in last week’s NFL draft.
Luckie, Reddell and Williams will look to take the next step in 2026. While Prothro is listed as a tight end, Georgia clearly envisions him as a slot pass catcher.
Georgia tight end Kaiden Prothro (right) makes a touchdown catch during the 2026 G-Day spring football game at Sanford Stadium on Saturday, April 18, 2026, in Athens. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)
Quote of the day
Stockton on Prothro:
“He played the slot. And that’s kind of the only place he played because we wanted him to grow in that position. We think he’s a mismatch. He’s really an elite catch radius guy. He put that on display today. And that kind of summed up his spring in his ability to go make plays on the perimeter. He’s a matchup problem.”
4-star Jerry Outhouse Jr. decommits from Georgia
Texas cornerback Jerry Outhouse Jr. has recently seen himself surge in the 247Sports Composite ratings. The 4-star CB from North Crowley High School in Texas is now the nation’s No. 99 overall recruit for the 2027 class.
That’s not the only recent update for Outhouse. He’s also decided to reopen his commitment. Outhouse released a graphic on social media that he has now decommitted from the current Georgia football class.
With this decision, the Dawgs drop to just seven commitments for the 2027 cycle. The program now also has just one commitment on the defensive side of the ball. That’s a unique little oddity for Smart’s program.
The decommitment also drops Georgia’s overall 247Sports class ranking down to No. 20 nationally. We’d have to go back a long time to see the Dawgs with a class outside the nation’s top 20 in late April.
