Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Baby Steps: Margin of Victory

Since 1990, Florida has dominated the Georgia-Florida match up winning 16 of the 19 contests between the two teams. Under Steve Spurrier in the 90's, Florida absolutely owned the Dawgs winning 9 of the 10 games. The average magin of victory (for either team) during that span was 25.2 points. The largest margin of victory was 40 points coming in 1996 when the Gators won 47-7.

Since 2000, the games have been decidely closer. Despite a 39 point victory for Florida last year (which is clearly an outlier this decade) the average winning margin has been 11.5 points. While Meyer has continued Spurrier's winning tradition, the victories are not coming as easy as they once did. Under Mark Richt, the Dawgs have won twice in Jacksonville. The average score of the games during the Richt Era - Florida 24.75, Georgia 17.8. We may not have found the edge in the won-loss column, but at least the score is trending closer.

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