Florida/Ole Miss Breakdown

As most of you know, I am a Gator fan.  Yesterday's game was on TV here in Atlanta, so I got to experience the torture live in HD.

No excuses.  We got beat.  We were overrated.

If it weren't for the USC game Thursday, it was no doubt the biggest upset of the year.

Having said that, I must say I was scratching my head earlier in the week when I saw the 23-point spread.  I watched the entire game Ole Miss played against Wake Forest two weeks ago; Ole Miss looked like a great team and almost won.  Then again, Wake Forest lost to Navy yesterday.  It's getting really hard to rank teams, isn't it?

I started getting nervous even before the game started when the announcers pointed out that Jevan Snead, the Ole Miss QB, had originally committed to Florida. He backed out after Meyer recruited Tebow.  That's all we need, a man on redemption mission.

Ole Miss didn't really play that great.  This loss was mostly a self-inflicted wound.  Florida's defense held the Rebels in check most of the time, but gave up several big plays, none bigger than a stunning 86-yard touchdown pass to take a 31-24 lead with 6:54 remaining.  Major Wright, I knew Reggie Nelson. Reggie Nelson was a friend of mine. Major Wright...you're no Reggie Nelson.

Florida seemed to have the game in hand at halftime leading 17-7, but started the third quarter with two fumbles deep in their own territory, which led to 10 quick Rebel points.

In the end, though, Superman finally failed.  Once in the first half, then twice again in the second half, Tebow overthrew wide-open receivers who would have walked into the end zone for six points.

I'm not talking about 50-yard bombs here.  These were 15- 25 yard touch passes, the kind you watch and say, "Hey, I could have hit that guy."  I haven't read all the press yet, but if Tebow is crying again...

The blocked extra point.  I can only think of the chip-shot field goal that Florida blocked against South Carolina two years ago.  No blocked field goal, no national championship.  What goes around, comes around, I guess.

Comparing this loss to USC's, I would have to say that USC's was worse.  True, they were on the road and Florida was at home.  But first, USC was No. 1, not No. 4, and to be honest, the impression in college football going into Thursday night is that USC was really Nos. 1-5, and no team in the country was even close to their level.

Also, USC was actually dominated by OSU in every aspect of the game.  They were never even in the game, whereas Florida's loss was more your typical upset, a nail biter where the favorite made a bunch of turnovers and special teams errors.

Finally, it wasn't as bad as Georgia's loss, either.  True, Alabama was ranked eighth and Georgia was only favored by six, but just four weeks ago, Georgia was ranked No. 1 in the country and Alabama was unranked.

I can't recall as big a can of whup ass being opened up on such a big, pumped up home crowd as in Athens Saturday night.

Still, the losses by Florida, Georgia, USC and Wisconsin will all count the same at the end of the day.  If there's beauty contest among one-loss teams in November, I don't think style points in September are going to matter much.